Hunter
by Hi no Tenchi
Summary: What happens if the Hokage is pursuaded to not tell anyone about the Kyuubi being inside Naruto, and the baby is instead taken away from Konoha by Tsunade and another Jinchuuriki? Powerful!Naruto. ABANDONED!
1. Different Beginnings

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New Beginnings

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Sarutobi sighed. It had only been a day since the mighty Kyuubi had been destroyed as the Konohanian population believed, but in reality, it had just been sealed into a boy who had just had his umbilical cord cut, the Yondaime's very own son, but also taking the life of the Yondaime as he did it, and causing Sarutobi to be called back into the paperwork-heavy job. He had enjoyed retirement and had only accepted to be back in the job as Konoha had just received a strong blow and couldn't look weak.

But now, he had to tell the Konohanian population what had really happened. He had written out a speech for it, as he didn't want to be stuck for something to say, but was having trouble, but in any way, the Yondaime had wanted his son to be thought of as a Hero in the village for taking the burden.

"They won't think of him as a Hero, he'll just be thought of as the Kyuubi itself," said a voice from the corner of the room, and the Hokage spun around, not having noticed the presence of anyone, making him think that he was just getting tired, but upon seeing who it was, he realised how they had gotten in without his noticing.

Said person was a man who looked in his twenties, with chestnut-brown hair that fell in bangs around his face and reached his shoulder at the back. His eyes were obsidian, and didn't have a single scratch on him, despite his highly-dangerous job. He wore loose-fitting black trousers half-covering a pair of black boots with steel parts, and his top half was only covered by a three-quarter length red trench-coat made of demon skin; a very rare and valuable material that was also very protective and fire-proof, on top of a piece of dull metal chest-plate armour, and not a weapon in sight, though in reality, he was armed enough for four men.

"How long have you been there for?"

"About six hours, long enough to know what's going on. But believe me, they won't see Naruto as a Hero, I know what it's like to have a Demon inside you, and look how my childhood fucked itself up."

"So why are you back?"

"To stop you making a mistake you will regret to your grave, Jiiji."

"They would really hate him for harbouring the Kyuubi?"

"Too many lies have been lost; no family didn't sustain losses, and everyone lost the Yondaime; for them to not hate the Kyuubi, and they will believe that in killing the Kyuubi, hence Naruto, will ease their suffering. You know what my own childhood was like… would really let him go through the same thing?" Sarutobi shook his head sadly. "Exactly. Don't tell them, just say that the Kyuubi really has died from the Yondaime using a suicidal Jutsu… a life for a life sort of Jutsu, and nobody knows of Naruto's birth, as Arashi had a secret marriage and a secret life; not many know his real name."

"Yes, Arashi always said that h wanted to keep his private life exactly that: private. But then what do I do?"

"I don't know, I've never had to look after a child."

"Could you learn very quickly?"

The man placed a hand on his hip and raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying that I am going to take the little gaki?"

"Who better? You know what to do so that his own childhood isn't like your own, you know the burdens of being a Jinchuuriki, and you can train him. Please, Kesshiro, I don't want to place him in an orphanage, and I don't know who else to ask."

"Jiraiya?" suggested the man. "Actually, scratch that; that would instantly go downhill as soon as the kid is old enough to read and finds one of Jiraiya's 'novels'."

"Precisely."

"Sarutobi, I cannot look after a child. It is a full-time job and you know what my job is like and I don't want to have the kid around if anything happens, nor do I want to have to be distracted by worrying about him. I will gladly train him and be around a lot, but I cannot be his primary guardian. Are you sure that there is nobody else?"

"Well, there _is_ Tsunade, but I'm a bit afraid of being hit through a wall for asking."

"And we don't want the kid an alcoholic gambling-junky, but she's the best bet, and I promise to look out for him and train him properly."

"Fine, I'll call Tsunade here."

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Tsunade was having a really bad day. She had lost most of her money in a pinball parlour, followed up by being chased by people wanting her to pay back some IOUs, whom she had to knock through several walls to have time to escape, Shizune had gotten food poisoning, which was untreatable, and finally, The newly reinstated Hokage had summoned her back to Konoha for some reason or the other, and she couldn't exactly refuse, especially so soon after the tragic but heroic death of the Yondaime.

She sighed, and made her way towards the Village of Konohagakure no Sato, carrying a sick Shizune slung over her shoulder, grumbling about annoying old senseis.

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"YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT!"

"Tsunade, please, calm down," said the Sandaime hastily, knowing what happened when somebody got Tsunade angry, hell, she had once broken every bone in somebody's right arm just for waking her up, and had refused to heal it out of annoyance.

"Why should I look after a kid! What about Jiraiya… no, scratch that thought… but why can't anyone else do it!"

"Because of who he is." At her questioning look, he continued. "Arashi didn't kill the Kyuubi; its power was just too great, so instead, he sealed it inside a newly born baby, who also happens to be his own son. Naruto is that baby, which is why I can only let somebody I trust look after him, and you are the best for the job."

"But still…" replied Tsunade, trying to think up an extremely good reason why not to. "I haven't always got the time to look after a kid; I'm being hunted by debt collectors whenever they find out where I am. I won't always be able to look after him in any case, and I can't just leave him alone."

"True, but Kesshiro has agreed to check up on the boy from time to time and train him, seeing as who the boy is housing."

"'Kesshiro' as in 'The one and only Kesshiro'?"

"If there is one and only one, then how much choice do you get?" asked Kesshiro from behind her.

"So why can't you take him?" she asked him, and instantly remembered what he did for a living. "Ok, fair enough…" she grumbled. "But I still don't think…"

She stopped talking when Sarutobi handed her a little bundle, showing an unruly mop of violently blonde hair on top of a small head belonging to a sleeping baby, who had faint whisker-like marks on his cheeks, and her heart melted as she held the small bundle, and she was struggling to keep an angry façade, which was being destroyed just by looking at the sleeping child in her arm, and she sighed.

"Fine, I'll do it," she grumbled, though the effect was being ruined by the smile on her face. "What's his name?"

"Naruto, and the surname that should be used by him is Uzumaki, as Kazame will attract far too much unwanted attention. He shouldn't stay in the village, as secrets don't often stay secrets around here, so take him on your journeys, and please try not to make your own lifestyle imprint on him too much."

She scowled at him, and would have hit him for that comment were her arms not full.

"I'll drop in time to time, though don't expect me to baby-sit him whilst you go off blowing all of your money on some stupid bet," added Kesshiro, and she nodded, then tried to kick him without jostling the baby, meaning that she missed, and Kesshiro's reflexes were far superior to her speed, so she definitely missed, and Kesshiro, being the mature and responsible adult that he is, replied by blowing a raspberry at her.

Sarutobi rolled his eyes and chuckled at Kesshiro's antics whilst Tsunade was trying her best to sock him and failing, and finally cleared his throat, stopping what they were doing. "Arashi asked me to make sure that Naruto got these at the time marked on them," he said, and placed a number of scrolls on his desk, which Tsunade placed carefully into a bag while Kesshiro held Naruto.

She was also given a number of other items, including the key to a trust fund set up for Naruto by the Yondaime, though she would need Kesshiro's signature on a piece of paper before she could take out any money from it, to save it from being gambled in another of Tsunade's failed bets.

"Well, I guess that I had better get going then," said Tsunade, and the two men in the room nodded, and she nodded back at them. She took all of the bags, and left the room.

"Don't let him become a gambling alcoholic," said Sarutobi to Kesshiro seriously, who smiled and nodded.

"I thought that we had already covered that point?"

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Tsunade sighed for about the tenth time, wondering why she had ever agreed to it, but then she remembered again when she looked at the adorable face of the child who was now awake, and being cooed at by Shizune, who loved her new little Brother, and hadn't freaked out when she had heard who Naruto was, knowing that Naruto wasn't the demon itself, though Tsunade had to remind her who Kesshiro was.

They travelled away from Konoha, starting a new life with an added person.

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	2. Growing Up

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Growing Up

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Naruto, due to the Kyuubi being inside him, was far more intelligent at a young age than any others, and was able to communicate before age one, though not always in actual speak, and they had become proficient at deciphering his childish type of sign language, or deciphering his childish handwriting, but it had become perfectly legible and he was completely fluent by the time that he had come to the age when other children would be speaking shakily.

It also turned out that the Kyuubi wasn't evil at all, and instead was the Celestial Guardian to the Kazame bloodline, which was why the Yondaime had found a way where the Kyuubi wouldn't be killed, and Kyuubi often helped Naruto, teaching him things as he slept, like the history of the world, and Naruto had retrieved a large amount of information and had recorded it, using the Kyuubi's memories. Using another fox as a medium, Kyuubi would also often travel with the three humans, and became their pet, though because of the seal placed by the Yondaime, he could only do it through a very small fox, and often grumbled whenever they cooed over the tiny kit, who really was adorable, even with the soul of a giant nine-tailed fox going through it.

Kesshiro kept true to his word, and turned up more times than necessary, but he had grown attached to Naruto, and he became Naruto's big Brother, like Shizune was his big Sister, and Tsunade his adoptive Mother; as he instinctively knew that she wasn't his real Mother, and both Tsunade and Kyuubi had told him so anyways, but he loved her like one all the same.

Kesshiro began training him as soon as he was able to understand what was going on, which was at about age 3, and he had to wear weights, starting extremely light, but it was hard at first for the 3 year old, though Kesshiro had used one of his own training methods with Naruto, and had given him a small white pill which increased muscle gain rate hundredfold, and Naruto's strength increased at a speed that was only possible with the pill, though Tsunade _had_ shouted at Kesshiro for doing something so ridiculously dangerous to her son, until Naruto, letting his Brother take the brunt of her anger, told her that it was fine and that he actually enjoyed the training, as it gave him something to do on the road, and since the weights were self-adjusting so that they would always make it straining for him, then he would always be improving, even whilst walking, and he also trained inside his mindscape with the Kyuubi, and since he developed in his mind, his body also got the changes too, though he hadn't understood Kyuubi's explanation why.

When he had started training, he had been given the second scroll from the Yondaime; the first being a letter to him examining things and saying sorry that he couldn't be around to look after Naruto himself, and the second scroll contained a set of exercise routines leading up to the Kazame family Tai-Jutsu style, the Lightning Flicker, and also the Uzumaki scrolls, from his Mother's family, which contained their Tai-Jutsu style and some other things of the family's.

"Come on, you lazy git, you're supposed to be running another three laps!" called Kesshiro from where he watched Naruto fall and rest for a moment, and the child got back up again and started running again, never one to turn down on of Kesshiro's challenges, as they often promised Ramen as a reward for completion, the one thing that he was never able to resist. "If you do it then I'll teach you a Jutsu!" And Jutsus. He was a total sucker for Jutsus. He finished off the last two laps, which happened to be over a mile each, but all in the name of training, and sat in front of ' expectantly. "Very well, I will teach you a Jutsu, but you do not have the Chakra control for it, which will be the next exercise!" Naruto groaned. "You will have to learn how to climb trees."

"Ano… how does that help me improve Chakra control?"

"Because the exercise is wrongly named; tree-_running­ _would be an apt name for it, as you have to run vertically, using Chakra to stick to the tree, maintaining a constant amount of Chakra running through your feet. Too little, and you fall. Too much, and your foot goes through the tree, and both can be painful, especially if your foot goes right through and you get splinters." He then explained the finer points to doing it, and the young child listened attentively, making sure that he remembered every single bit of it, not that he would forget, as Kyuubi was thereto remind him, and he had a very good memory.

He then had to try it, and got up about two feet before falling back and landing on his arse, hard, and Kesshiro chuckled, earning him a glare from the child, which just served to make him laugh harder, and Naruto joined in after a short while, getting back up and rubbing his throbbing rear end.

Naruto then tried to climb the tree again. And again. And again. And again. And a… well, you get the point.

Kesshiro read a book (which isn't bright orange or not allowed to be read by children, by the way) whilst Naruto slowly started to inch his way up the tree, only managing to get so high on his first fifty tries because of the pill he had taken, which helped in all aspects of Ninja training, and his Chakra reserves were absolutely massive, because his stamina was gargantuan in size, and Tsunade often had to resort to a sleeping Genjutsu used in Nin-medicine to get him to go to sleep before midnight, and to stay asleep past four, as Naruto never slept long, as his massive stamina didn't need it, which just meant that Kesshiro could torture train him for longer, and the Hunter-Nin spent much longer with them then he did actual hunting, though he would sometimes disappear for a while if there were rumours of Nukenins in the area.

It took Naruto seventeen hours to complete the exercise, and by that time he was pretty knackered, whereas others would have died of Chakra exhaustion, though Naruto did kind of fall asleep in mid-step and crashed into the soft ground, snoring loudly, causing Kesshiro to snicker and continue reading, making no move to get Naruto up off the ground, though changed his mind at what Tsunade would do to him, meaning how many trees he would go through, if she found her son like that, so sighing, he picked up the sleeping boy and carried him back to the Inn where they were staying at in a small village in the middle of nowhere.

Naruto received the next scroll from his Father on his fourth birthday, along with a set of training clothes, which were far more durable than the tatters that had become of the clothes he had used in training, along with a set of real, and very sharp, Shuriken and Kunais, a scroll with a medical Jutsu from Tsunade who had said that he could now heal his own cuts for a change, especially know that he had the throwing weapons, and a Jutsu scroll containing the instructions to using the Kawarimi, as Naruto had already learned the Bunshin no Jutsu and Henge no Jutsu, which mixed together made great tools for pranks, which he absolutely loved, and about which Tsunade had shouted at Kesshiro for encouraging him.

Kesshiro taught him how to throw the two different weapons accurately and with great effect, though he made it a lot harder by making Naruto have to hit the board ring-first, which was extremely hard, as the kunai was blade-weighted, and many great weapons masters were not able to do it, which was why Kesshiro made Naruto do it, though without telling him how hard it was, as Naruto had a way of doing things through perseverance and determination, so saying that all Genins were able to do it just made his determination to do it even greater.

His Chakra control was pretty bad, though his enormous stamina made up for it, and Kesshiro rued the day that Tsunade teach him the trick behind her monstrous strength, which he hoped was not for a very, very, very long time, as one person punching him through walls was bad enough, but two would just be hell, and being hit through a wall by a young child would just be humiliating, no matter who that child was.

The years passed in a flurry of training, running from debt collectors, training, travelling, training, a lot of Ramen eating, training, Tsunade hitting Kesshiro through a wall for the most trivial of things, though they were also often accidents, as she wasn't able to control her strength when she was angry, more training, and then some more ramen eating.

To Tsunade's annoyance, Naruto opted more towards Kesshiro's job rather than her own, though with his atrocious Chakra control he would probably end up hurting someone rather than healing them, though he had gotten the basic medical Jutsus, even if he wasted a lot of Chakra doing it, once again made up by his huge reserves, though she didn't think much of the idea of her son being in so much danger, but Kesshiro had been no help whatsoever in dissuading him, and the Hunter-Nin ion question actually encouraged it, much to her bane and the destruction of many walls and anything solid in the path of his trajectory, and he often secretly took Naruto along when he went hunting at night, though the boy had to stay behind an invisibility shield, which could also turn completely dark by a simple mental command of Kesshiro's, used if there was going to be a lot of unexpected bloodshed, as he didn't want to traumatize Naruto.

They years passed, and Naruto continued to grow, train, improve beyond their expectations, and still had far too much time to pull pranks in between, though at least he had time to be a child. Again, much to Tsunade's annoyance and Kesshiro's encouragement, Naruto had started creating his own explosives, using them in pranks, which started off as paint bombs, using bright fluorescent pink paint, but that had moved onto actually useful weapons, which Tsunade approved of little more, but had actually made quite a bit of money (more like a small fortune) by actually managing, with Kesshiro's help, to set up his own company, and they sold in Konoha as weapons, and they were currently in correspondence with the Hokage over a deal to make the highly improved version of the traditional smoke bombs part of standard equipment for those of the rank of Chuunin and above, and then another deal which was basically hiring Naruto as an inventor for the ANBU, something that had shocked the two greatly, but it meant great business too, and if it helped ANBU, then who were they to argue as long as the price was right? Not to mention that making the smoke bombs part of official equipment would mean that they would have to be bought, making them even more business, and they had agreed to both deals, and had even given them a 20 discount on the smoke bombs bought as part of the standard kit, and the Hokage would be sending them the contracts as soon as possible.

At every birthday, and sometimes sooner, Naruto would receive the next scroll from his Father, and his Tai-Jutsu skills were getting to be very good in his two parents' families' Tai-Jutsu styles, and he was hoping to soon get the Shuushin, or 'Body Flicker' scroll to learn, as that was the finishing piece to the style, and so far he was using a different Ninjutsu/Genjutsu hybrid that made everyone looking at him when he used it to only be able to see flicker and blurs, but the Shuushin was the real thing.

At age 8, he participated in taking out some D-Rank Nukenins, which was training and battle experience for him, though he followed Kesshiro in use of stealth whenever possible, as that was the way of the Ninja, and he had taken them out with ease, using a sleeping gas bomb, of his own creation of course, and had carried their unconscious corpses to the nearest police station, not bothering in collecting the meagre bounty.

As a reward for succeeding his first battle against Nukenins, however easy it was, Kesshiro taught him the technique that would become his signature technique: The Kage Bunshin. It only took Naruto five hours to get it, and that was all on his own with no more help than a scroll, but the Kage Bunshins were incredibly useful, and he started using them to create masses of the weapons that he sold, instead of spending a lot of time doing it himself, and from then on, production boosted by 2000, and crate loads of the explosives were being created and transported to all main Hidden Villages, except the ones in direct conflict against Konoha, which meant that Konoha, the Wave, Suna, and Cloud were all getting them, but not Stone or Grass, as Stone was currently at war with Konoha, and Grass was working behind them, and the Hidden Villages weren't the only ones to get them, as even the smallest Villages with Ninjas in them had deliveries of the weapons sent to them.

And during all this, the company run by Naruto, paperwork done by clones, and Kesshiro there for financial help and ideas, expanded and became better known around the Shinobi continent, and the contracts were signed by both sides, and they were getting ideas for real weaponry from the ANBU, though Naruto still had to come up with how to do what he had decided to do for the very vague ideas sent by ANBU, though he made the ideas far more destructive than they had originated, like a flash bomb which also gave off a special sound that completely messed up your sense of balance and direction, often resulting in vomiting, and it also messed with nerve reaction time, making the victims far more susceptible to being caught by a kunai when they recovered from the initial attack, and then another that was far more destructive, and was a shrapnel grenade which sent out shrapnel, as the name implied, but the shrapnel went flying at certain parts of the body, and there were three levels of them. Green was the first one, and it targeted normal bits of flesh, Yellow went for arteries and sensitive points, whilst Red ones targeted special pressure points that caused great pain, and most importantly, and this was why they were especially dangerous, they were made to especially target the eyes, and they had a 100 chance of penetrating the eyeball without a hand being held in front of it, and even then they sometimes curved around.

His training was going well, and he had completely forgotten about the weights that continued to upgrade themselves, as he had gotten so used to them, and only remembered then when Kesshiro had hobbled around massaging his foot after kicking the ankle weight, and they had found out that the weights had actually all maxed out, and so he was clamped with a second set of them.

Kyuubi had also been training him hard, and Naruto learned a third Tai-jutsu style, called the Fire Fox, and used an ability that had taken him ages to Master, which was to convert Chakra into fire, and then fired it out of his tenketsus, burning anything but him. The Demon Fox Lord had also taught him how to call upon the demon Chakra, which was far more potent than Naruto's, but also far more volatile, so it should only be used for the much bigger Jutsus, which he also taught Naruto, along with also teaching him strategy. Since e was taught in his own mindscape, Naruto could make the room change to whatever he wanted it to, so he would be taught what to do in certain positions, demonstrated by the Kyuubi, who could also influence the room, and the bars were actually gone, though the Kyuubi still couldn't leave, and couldn't take over Naruto's body, and wouldn't even if he could, as he was the Kazames' Guardian, and so couldn't hurt them.

The Kyuubi had only actually attacked Konoha in the first place because his mate and kits had been killed by people (idiots) who wore Konoha hatai-ate, and so he had charged in without even trying to find out anything about who he was attacking first.

Another three years passed, and he had already become an official Hunter-Nin, following his Brother's example, learning more and more as he went along, though he followed the rule of 'Quality over Quantity', as his Brother did, and he had to Master a Jutsu before he would be taught the next, which was great incentive to get the Jutsu mastered, and would often completely wear himself out by staying up all night, having found a way to overcome the effect of the sleeping technique that Tsunade used to use on him back in the good old days when he was hyperactive, and was now just 'boisterous' instead.

Like with every year, he received another scroll from his Father, sometimes also containing some other Jutsus, but he was getting ever closer to the end of the Tai-jutsu style. In his Mother's scroll, he found out all about the family, and it turned out that the Uzumakis were once great Hunters with devastating weapons, but then they had been almost wiped out, only leaving one line with a recessive gene. He learned the Tai-Jutsu style as best as he could without the special items that were passed down the line, which made the final part of the style possible, and was now also on the third of the Fox styles, the Ice Fox, following the Earth Fox, which all included using Chakra to create or control the elements.

He was still inventing like crazy, and the mass of money that had been a small fortune before was now a huge fortune, as the weapons he created were being sold like wildfire, to both Ninjas and pranksters alike, but his biggest customer were ANBU, who had lots of money to pay with, and needed the ones that cost more and they had a lot of people to outfit. An ordinary but powerful flash bang had also been added to the list of items that would be part of standard equipment, along with a tracking device he had created which was to always be able to find your team-mates and it would also tell you what their condition was like, though rather disturbingly, and hilariously too, the biggest users were crazed fan girls, and little did he know that one Uchiha Sasuke was cursing their inventor to the ninth hell.

Tsunade had now long ago stopped trying to turn him into a medi-Nin, though made sure that he would be able to heal properly, and resigned herself to accept his chosen career, though was still allowed to fret about it, which she took advantage of a lot. His Hunter-Nin career was going well, and he was learning more and more with every mission, and had performed his first kill at age 10, which had taken a while to get over, but he realised that he would have to kill as a Ninja, and it would be incredibly hard to be a Hunter-Nin when B-Rank Nukenins and above had to be killed on sight, so he accepted it as another step in life and a valuable lesson to remember.

But now that he was eleven, he had to go back to his birth place and become a Genin.

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	3. Genin Exam and new Teammates

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Genin Exam and new Team-mates

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The walk back to the gates of Konoha was a long and tedious one, and far longer than necessary, but they purposefully took their time in getting back, whilst still making good time, and training along the way, not to mention clearing the road from bandit and such as they went along.

What had once been a group of two; Tsunade and Shizune, had grown to six; Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto, Kesshiro, Kit/Fluffy (the fox that Kyuubi adopted), and Tonton, the pig that Shizune had gotten a number of years ago and had dressed up. It took them two months to reach the gates of Konoha, and Naruto trained in raw physical strength as he went along, smashing clean through trees, a feat only possible for him after all those years of training, and as always, he was thinking of new weapons and inventions to possibly create as he punched reinforced logs, and would sometimes stop, chuckle, write something down in the notepad that he kept his ideas in, and then went back to hitting the log.

He had also adopted a new weapon which he had ordered to be imported from the West, way away from the Shinobi continent, and had been practicing with it ever since it had arrived. It was a special custom-made hi-tech crossbow, with extras that he had created and added to it, including a much more powerful sight, infra-red and heat sensor, and made it always shoot in a straight line, with bolt that were specially crafted by him to do a number of things, from self-Shuriken Kage Bunshin, which worked on not just Shurikens, to armour-piercing and fire ones. He quickly taught himself how to fire it effectively and accurately, and how to hold it still whilst firing from a long way away, and get very accurate shots in, and had soon also added a feature that made all bolts invisible until they hit, and completely silent too; the perfect long-range silent assassination weapon.

He had also created his own outfit, which had similarities to Kesshiro's, but also different. His trench-coat was a blood-red, which also played a factor in fighting, as it would psychologically attack his opponents, he had a black bandana instead of a hatai-ate to cover his very visible yellow hair, he had the crossbow slung over his back, he wore full-length black trousers and actually had ninja sandals, black, but the biggest difference was his shirt. He wore a crisp dark grey shirt, which when he removed the trench-coat, it read 'Golden Fox' on the back in a Kanji, written in red in front of a snarling golden fox, and he also used Senbon needles instead of kunais for the most part.

"This is Konoha?" asked Naruto, looking from the higher ground that they stood on, overlooking the huge Village of Konoha, the only Hidden Village to which Naruto had never been at an age where he would remember it, and let out a low whistle.

"Yep, that's the grand village of Konohagakure no Sato, the Village hidden among the leaves," replied Kesshiro, beaming at his hometown.

"No shit," muttered Naruto, looking at the forests that completely surrounded Konoha for miles around.

"And that's where we're going now," replied Kesshiro, pointing to the Hokage's tower that stood higher than the village.

Naruto turned to Kesshiro with a grin on his face, and Kesshiro looked back at him with an identical grin.

"Race you!" they both shouted at the same time, and jumped down the loose-dirt-and-stones slope, creating two dust clouds as they surfed down, and then started running towards the edge of the Village, not bothering with identifying themselves as they raced towards the Hokage's tower, where an amused Hokage watched them through his crystal ball, noticing how Naruto acted his age and Kesshiro acted far younger than his age, whilst they shared the same dangerous job.

Naruto charged Chakra into his feet and ran up the outer wall of the Village, back-flipping forwards and landing on his feet on the top of the wall, and then jumped forwards with Chakra-enhanced legs, and tried to catch up to Kesshiro, who was a few feet in front of him, and he overtook Kesshiro when he threw a stone, hitting a pressure-point on the middle of the outside of Kesshiro's thigh, making the man fall and glare at him on the way down, before tripping Naruto up, but they both recovered very quickly and continued their race towards the tower, whereas Tsunade and Shizune along with the two animals just walked through the gates after identifying themselves travelling towards the tower slowly.

The race ended in a draw, which was often the outcome of their competitions, which could be about the most trivial of things, and they entered the Hokage's tower together, where they waited calmly in the waiting room for the others to arrive, which was about ten minutes later, where they found Kesshiro sleeping and Naruto idly chewing on a senbon whilst thinking of new ideas and trying to find inspiration in things around the room, and they all went together into the Hokage's office, with Kit on Naruto's shoulder, and the Hokage looked up at them, not looking at all surprised.

"It's good to see you back," he smiled at them, and they bowed to him, and Naruto was introduced to the Hokage, and Naruto and Kesshiro stayed stood up when offered seats, more out of habit than suspicion, which was understandable, and in any case, they were talking grown-up things and Naruto was looking at a picture of his Father, the Yondaime, wondering what he had been like, but didn't ask.

Conversation turned to different things after a while, and now it was more Naruto and the Hokage talking about stuff. Naruto had known that he would be coming back to be a Genin, and they also discussed things with the business dealings he had with Konoha and he received a new list of special request items from ANBU and the Hokage himself also added in a few suggestions, and Naruto showed him a few new items, half of which weren't explosives but other useful items, which still had elements of explosives, like a special flare where you drew the Kanji message yourself, and also several weapon tags, like a shock-tag that he had created and had used an unsuspecting Kesshiro as BETA tester for.

Then he was told that the Genin exam would be starting in ten minutes, and after an annoyed glare, Naruto jumped out of the window and sped for the academy, and arrived late. He walked towards the classroom, and used a Henge to disguise himself as a Chuunin, and knocked on the door, which was opened by Umino Iruka.

"Yes?" asked Iruka.

"You're wanted in Classroom 23," said Naruto, using the number for a classroom which he had seen earlier to be empty, and Iruka thanked him before rushing off. Naruto gave an amused snicker, and walked into the classroom, plonking down in an empty seat as he dropped the Henge, happily whistling to himself innocently ignoring curious looks.

Iruka came back a few minutes later, looking annoyed, and spotted a student whom he had never seen before who was whistling and picking his teeth with a senbon. He grumbled, shot the student a glare, and went to the front of the classroom, involuntarily congratulating a good ruse, and started speaking about the importance of what being a Genin was, which to Iruka's annoyance, Naruto and Nara Shikamaru were sleeping through, and he then started calling people up to do the Bunshin no Jutsu. He finally called out Naruto's name, which was responded to by a series of soft snores, so sighing, Iruka went up to Naruto, and made to tap him on the shoulder, but his wrist was suddenly grasped faster than he could see by Naruto's hand.

"I'm up, I'm up," grumbled Naruto, and went down to the bottom of the class.

"Please do a Bunshin no Jutsu," stated Iruka.

Naruto winced at how easy the test was, and didn't even bother with hand seals and just yawned, making ten clones appear out of nowhere, and yawn with him. Iruka's eyes boggled at this, and after many failed tries, involving opening and closing his mouth until Naruto commented that he looked like a guppy fish at feeding time, said: "Henge…" and Naruto understood perfectly, so once again without seals or words, all ten clones turned into differently decorated clowns all holding different coloured balloons and launching party streamers.

Iruka got the streamers out of his hair and Naruto cancelled both techniques, before sitting back down in his seat and resuming his distracting snoring, which Iruka got in stereo with Shikamaru on the other side of the room.

"Alright, now you will all be fighting against someone," he announced, and called up two people to go first. Many boring fights later, and two catfights between Uchiha Sasuke Fan girls™, the final fight arrived and the Uchiha in question was called up, and was pitted against Naruto, who somebody had to throw a book at to wake up, despite the book never making contact, having been thrown back with four shuriken buried into it, and Naruto stood at his side of the makeshift arena.

"I don't know how you did what you did with the Bunshins," said Sasuke, smirking, "but however you managed to trick everyone, you're going down. You might as well give up already, you're going to lose."

"And you might as well shut up already, because I don't give a damn about what some arrogant Uchiha cretin thinks. Just because everybody else seems to be adamant on wiping your arse for you doesn't mean that I will bow down to your every whim and inflate your already over-large ego," Naruto snapped back. Sasuke made to hit him, but the Uchiha hit nothing but air.

Naruto stood behind him, and gave Sasuke a nudge in the back of the knee and the boy toppled over far too easily. "Well, well, it looks like the pampered Uchiha princess is all talk and no muscle to back it up," he snickered, and thumb-jabbed a nerve cluster in Sasuke's shoulder, making his entire right arm go numb and irresponsive. He tried to kick Naruto but ended up getting his leg caught and was lifted upside-down by his ankle, making most of the girls in the class faint when his shirt fell down, and Naruto dropped him on his head painfully. "Pitiful," he muttered, and struck another pressure point on the side of the neck, knocking the Uchiha unconscious, without having to even come close to using a fraction of his power.

Iruka, along with pretty much everybody in the class, stared at where the best ninja in the class had just had his arse handed to him by a stranger, and it took a few minutes for them to shake themselves, and half of USFG™ went to see if Sasuke was alright, whilst the other half went to try and bash Naruto's head in, who was of course sleeping, having not done enough of it during the night from excitement and anxiety, which was now replaced with concern. Concern about how long it would be before these kids were killed when they are at this level of skill.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto," called Iruka, and everybody went up to get a hatai-ate from the front, though Iruka had to throw Naruto's one to him, which was once again snatched in mid-air, and Naruto tied it around his neck where it fell like a loose necklace, and he kept his eyes half-open as he watched the students milling around the class, and he continued the evaluation he had made of them whilst he had been asleep; but Naruto used an old Ninja trick which meant that while he did rest, he was still 95 aware of his surroundings, and it also made him lose perception of time, meaning that long periods could just be slept through easily, even if he wasn't tired.

He gently and harmlessly removed the small bug from his shoulder, and set it down on his desk, where it flew back to the Aburame, who just like everyone else in the Aburame clan, was as expressionless as the bugs that inhabited them (shudder). There was the Nara, who was as lazy as all the males in the Clan, and as frightened of the females in the clan as all other males in the clan, and he was sat next to a continuously munching Akimichi, who were the only ninjas to allow themselves to get that size, as it tied into their bloodline jutsus. Then there was the arrogant Uchiha who had nothing but hatred and revenge in his eyes, both directed at his Brother, who had killed the entire clan for unknown reasons, who was valiantly trying to get rid of the founders of Uchiha Sasuke Fan Club™, a Yamanaka and a Haruno, whose bloodline limit seemed to be having pink hair. Then there was also a Hyuuga, if the white pupil-less eyes were anything to go by, though she seemed far more reserved than the ordinary Hyuugas. Judging by the overpowering smell of dog, he would also guess that the kid with the dog on his head was an Inuzuka, the Dog Clan.

The end of the class soon came, and Naruto decided to exit via the window, as it was quicker and much more fun, and walked back to the Hokage's office. Upon arrival, the secretary nodded him through, and he found the Hokage waiting for him, though Naruto was sure that he had seen a corner of an orange book in the Hokage's robes' front pocket, but quickly dismissed the idea.

"Naruto, I'm glad that you came," said the Hokage, and Naruto smiled.

"Well, when you only know where the academy and Hokage's tower are, and you have just come from the academy, then where else would I go to?" he asked.

The Hokage chuckled, and nodded. "Good point. I would like to congratulate you on your performance in the test, and I just got the results through; and you came first from beating the top Academy student and your outstanding performance with the two Jutsus."

"I've learned far more difficult ones than just those," replied Naruto. "But I doubt that you wanted me here to talk about that."

"Correct, I would first of all like to give you this," he said, handing over a wrapped package, which Naruto placed in his bag to open later. "And I would also like to speak to you about something of an important matter." Naruto took the proffered seat, and the Hokage continued. "Seeing the exam results this year, which were a good turnout," here he missed Naruto's expression of shocked disbelief, "and with some of the abilities in the class, I have decided, with the Village Head Council's acceptance, to make a different team this year, one for a specific purpose, and quite simply, with your outstanding skills and career, you are one of the four choices for this team."

"If you believe that I am a good choice for the team, whatever its purpose, then I will do so because that is your wish and that is good enough."

"I would still like to have your agreement to it, and you need to sign this contract if you do," said the Hokage, and slid over a form on a clipboard, which Naruto quickly read and signed.

"Who are the other three?"

"You shall find out tomorrow at noon, where you will be meeting your instructor at Training Grounds 15, and I'll get you a map of the Village so that you can get around easier. And by the way, I was asked just earlier, when someone from ANBU found out that you were here, when the spike bomb would be completed?"

"That one? I finished it about a month ago actually. Give me a second…" he said, rummaging trough a bag ten times as big on the inside than out, and finally pulled out a small sphere which had sixteen spikes all evenly placed around the sphere, though eight of them longer, making it stand up like a cube, and those were the only spikes to do with the device that were round-ended. "Ok, basically, this has a thin layer of Chakra all around it, allowing it to stick to any surface necessary, and it will shoot exactly 1000 spikes of this size," he said, showing a diagram of the mentioned spikes, which were longer than the sphere was wide, "and they will shoot out in all direction, except directions where the Chakra sticking is in use, in which case the spikes will be redirected somewhere else. It has a timer than can go up to 30 seconds, starting at five, as one second is suicidal, and all spikes are armour-piercing," he said, and handed over a small manual that came with it, half of it about security, and the Hokage thanked him, and handed him a cheque wit the price that they had agreed on, and he would get 50 of all of the ones sold. He also handed over a package with three other completed weapons that ANBU had requested, and received three more cheques, and informed the Hokage that they would be getting a large supply of all four by the end of the month.

They then talked pleasantries for a while, and then Naruto said his goodbyes and left the Hokage to get back to his 'reading', and using the map that he had been given, he soon got the cheques deposited into his bank account, which he hadn't withdrawn from for a while, and didn't need to either.

He used the map to find a Ramen place, which the Hokage had personally placed a scrawled red ring around, and that was where he went, to Ichiraku's Ramen, where he inhaled fourteen bowls of Ramen before deciding that he needed to stock up on certain weapons, and headed to the weapons store.

"Is there anything that we can help you with dear?" asked the woman behind the counter.

"I just needed to stock back up on several things… I'm running low on explosive tags, shurikens, and I wouldn't mind browsing around to see what you've got either."

"You new around here?" she asked, and he nodded. "Well, business is being slow today, so I can give you a quick tour if you want." He nodded, and she showed him around the large shop, which was stocked full of Shinobi weaponry. "In that cabinet over there are all of the throwing weapons, which our family specialises in, along with most weapons," she said, pointing at a huge glass cabinet which spanned the length of a whole wall, and she then showed him around the rest of the shop, which contained what seemed to be every single type of blade imaginable. "We've also just received a new set of special explosives which ANBU apparently uses if you're interested," she said, and showed him a cabinet containing incredibly familiar items.

"Not necessary, I'm stocked up fully on them," he said, and showed the inside of the right side of his trench-coat, where a multitude of explosives were stuck to the coat, causing her to raise her eyebrows, but she didn't say anything, and went background the shop inspecting different weapons. He finally got the items that he needed, and also as a treat for himself, he got the best hand-Master-crafted No Dachi that they had, surprising the woman, but the cost of the purchase was enough to make up for a week of no business at all, so she kept silent about it and instead handed him a leaflet that explained about the No Dachi, including about safety and handling, and even a basic exercise to do with it, and it also explained that it had been crafted with pure Chakra fused into it, making it virtually indestructible.

Naruto left the shop with his new purchases, and as his crossbow was currently matter-less (a special tag he and Kesshiro had created for the sole purpose of carrying many things all at once without it getting in the way; it made the thing lose all of its matter, which was kept within the tag, and the tag became a sort-of summoning scroll for whatever it was, though a lot easier to use and it made it so that things could pass where it was and it wouldn't weigh a thing, but it was still there and the matter-less-ness could be reversed with a simple mental command, allowing quick draw and meant that he could carry enormous loads on him without it showing or him having to lift anything, and was originally created for the shipments of the weapons that the 100-odd clones created), he attached a back-sheath that the woman had given to him with it for free to his back (duh) and slid the No-Dachi into it, where the No-Dachi's main sheath stuck inside the back-sheath. The No-Dachi itself was actually longer than he was, at about 7ft in length, but made like traditional Japanese swords, in that it had virtually no air-resistance when swung down, and would cut through the air with ease, and while it was the length of a Zanbatou, it wasn't chunky, and far more silent. He quickly headed to the bookstore where he got a large book on everything to do with the practical side of the No-Dachi, and after tracing a quick Kanji on the sword making it so that he would be the only one to ever be able to wield it, and anyone else would get 700,000 volts for their troubles, he headed to where his new apartment had been marked on the map.

Upon arrival, he found out that he was sharing a two-bedroom apartment with Kesshiro and Kit, who was sleeping in his deep pockets, and Kesshiro handed him a small graduation present in the form of a pair of sleeveless gloves with a metal backing, dark green in colour, and made from Higher Snake Demon skin; very valuable and very protective, and all Demon hide was valuable because it was nearly suicidal for humans to try and get some of it, but being Hanyous due to the demons inside of them, Naruto and Kesshiro made easily short work of the Demons who were just like normal 60ft snakes with a big appetite but just far more poisonous, thicker hides, lightning fast reactions, foot-long fangs, strange demonic mutations growing a new tail when you cut its old one of in seconds, that sort of thing really.

The next morning, Naruto headed to the Academy where he would be officially registered as a Genin, though he thankfully didn't have to be photographed by the grumpy bald man that photographed everyone else, as he already had Ninja identification in the form of Hunter-Nin identification, and used the same picture as that, and it went quickly. He picked up ten bowls of Ramen from Ichiraku as he went past the place, storing the Ramen in transportable seal-lock bowls, on his way to Training Grounds 15.

He was the first one there, and used his time to eat his Ramen whilst waiting, invisible up a tree, for his team-mates and sensei to arrive, thinking back to what the contract had said. His team-mates soon arrived, and he saw the same Aburame who had placed a bug on him yesterday, the other guy who had been sleeping, and surprisingly he also saw a girl who hadn't been in this year's class. Their sensei arrived exactly at noon (so not Kakashi) and from what he knew, which was a surprising amount, she was Yuuhi Kurenai, Genjutsu Mistress and one of the Jounin instructors.

She greeted the three Genins who were down on the ground, and asked: "The last guy not arrived yet?"

"Been here longer than everyone else," replied Naruto from up the tree.

_Damn, even I didn't sense him there…_ though the red-eyed Kurenai, but said nothing out loud, and Naruto dropped down from the tree, landing on the ground perfectly, and No-Dachi down to the size of a katana, one of its special abilities, and their sensei sat down on the grass, though only the girl and the Nara sat down too, whilst Shino stayed standing with that emotionless mask on, and Naruto leaning against a tree twirling a senbon.

"Well, as you should all know, you are all part of a special team, which I first of all special because of the fact that there are four of you, but that is because of the special point of the team existing. But first of all, let's all introduce ourselves. I'm Yuuhi Kurenai, I specialise in Genjutsu, like gardening, I dislike perverts, especially ones with silver hair, a hatai-ate covering one eye and who is chronically late, and who doesn't care about reading that perverted book in public. I don't have a lot of hobbies, except deciphering old Genjutsu scrolls from he ancient archives. My hope for the future is to be able to discover the secrets of Genjutsu that all Genjutsu masters dream of deciphering, and I want to show that women can be good Ninjas. You next," she said, pointing at the lazy boy.

"I'm Nara Shikamaru, I don't have any particular likes or dislikes, my hobbies include Shogi and watching clouds, I dislike it when my mum starts shouting at me for not doing something that she asked me to do. I want to be a medium Ninja, and then marry an average looking woman and have ordinary kids," he said in a bored monotone, and everyone blinked at the lack of everything in his answer, but then Kurenai pointed to Shino.

"Aburame Shino, I like bugs, I hate spiders, I enjoy bug collecting and finding out about special bugs. I do not like people who kill bugs for no reason, and I also dislike aerosol and fly traps, and I wish to add to my family's archives and find the golden-winged Kekkei bug." She then pointed at the girl who none of them knew.

"I'm Yamanaka Inoka, I failed last year and spent a remedial year, though my two team-mates got badly injured/his family decided to move away. I sometimes like both otherwise dislike my younger Sister by one year, because she doesn't take being a Kunoichi seriously and instead runs after the Uchiha kid who needs some attitude-therapy. I spend my free time learning more about psychology to help me with creating my own Jutsu to add to the Bloodline Jutsus of my family."

Kurenai then pointed to Naruto, and said: "Never seen you around before."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I spent my whole life between being five days old and yesterday away from the village, where I was mainly trained by my nii-san. I enjoy creating new explosive weaponry and have actually made a business out of it, and I also like to invent new and annoying-for-my-Brother Jutsus, a lot of them surprisingly effective, and I want to master my family Tai-jutsu styles. I don't like arrogant people cough Uchiha Sasuke cough and I don't like being underestimated, though I understand how effective it is in battle if you are."

Kurenai nodded at all of them. "Well, all of you are the best at what you do of the Genin, and you are all trained in stealth, which is part of the whole point of this team, which like I said earlier, is a completely different one."

She cleared her throat.

"This is a Special Operations Hit-Squad."

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Chapter 3 is finally uploaded!

Just thought I should clear something up, due to someone asking:

**Sasuke has no idea that he even has any trackers on him, though may find out at one point or the other.**

Please Review! It only takes a minute, and makes me happy!


	4. Birth of a HitSquad

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Birth of a Hit-Squad

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"_This is a Special Operations Hit-Squad."_

Silence rang out through the forest, as none of the Genin had anything to say, and were not ones to say something simply for the sake of saying something; though they would have been in shock had they not already known, having signed the contracts.

"Because of this, you are special Genin, and are exempt from D-Rank missions to save the time for training. You will all be taught to function together in a team, strengthening each others' weaknesses and assuming the different roles on the team. You will all be taught certain things together, like strategy, protocol, hand-signals and such, but you will all also be receiving personalised training from people who are specialists in what they do, and I will be your Genjutsu instructor as well as general Sensei, which means that whilst you are Genin, you are my responsibility, and I am the one who sorts things out for you and such. Together, you cover certain areas, and it is mine and the others' jobs to fill in all of the gaps to make you a proper team for your job. The team's main purpose is assassination, though all sorts of things will be included in it.

"Today will be the start of your training, and we will start off with teambuilding exercises to get you working together, and over the course of the training that you will be doing together you will be learning all about each others' styles of fighting and abilities. If you ever need to ask something, then don't hesitate in asking; it's what I'm here for, among other things. Being a special team, your trainings are going to be different from other teams', and we will all be sleeping in the forest for a week at the very least, starting in a week's time, and in that time you will all be learning survival training, but not the pissy training that the others go through, this is a 'get through it or get seriously injured and possibly die' sort of survival training, which means an extensive ANBU crash-course. You will be trained to be able to use anything in your surroundings as a potential weapon, and you will, in time, instinctively search any place for hostiles and dangerous terrain, as well as hiding places and advantage points. A mistake can cost yours and everybody else on your team's lives out in the field, so you will have to not just learn everything that you are taught, you will have to master it. Understood?"

All four heads nodded, and even the lazy-as-hell Shikamaru was listening, as this was serious, and being lazy could mean the others' deaths on his hands, which was something none of them wanted.

"Good. You will all be taught Tai-Jutsu by Maito Gai, who is a Tai-Jutsu specialist, Ninjutsu will be taught by a number of different people, and you all have your family's abilities to learn, and master. I will be teaching you all Genjutsu, like I mentioned earlier, and different people from ANBU will be training you in tactics, the basic ANBU training, really, how to make best use of terrain, problem solving, which means that you'll be given a situation which you have to figure how to get out of just by applying knowledge, strategy and varying factors. This will be the training schedule commencing in a week's time," she said, and all handed them a scroll.

Dawn – 8am Team Tai-Jutsu training

8am – 9am Breakfast

9am – 1pm Training

1pm – 2.30pm Lunch

2.30pm – 5pm Training

5pm – 7pm Teambuilding

7pm – 8pm Dinner

8pm – 11pm Free time

11pm – Dawn Sleep

"The periods ar just marked Training, because thepeople who are teaching you will have busy schedules, so you will be taught whenever it is possible, but that is the basic timetable of what will happen for the next two weeks. The period marked 'Free time' is to do whatever you want to do, though I do urge you to do something constructive in that time. That schedule will start tomorrow, and today we are going to be doing lots of teambuilding and getting to know each other, as well as getting sorted out. You all need special equipment, and clothes better suited for the job," she said, and Naruto caught her muttering 'and I'll rip that weirdo to pieces if he makes anyone wear that stupid spandex…'

They all followed her to get new equipment needed, and they went to the shop where Naruto had gone just yesterday, which was apparently the best weapons shop in Konoha. The woman there yesterday was gone and it was now a man instead, and he nodded when he saw Kurenai, having been forewarned, and turned the sign around to read 'Closed' once they were inside, and he locked the door. He silently made a motion to beckon them to the back, where he opened a secret door, and they found themselves in a completely different part of the shop, which contained the weaponry not allowed to those of lower ranks, and Naruto once again spotted his own weapons there, though these were the much more dangerous ones, like poisonous gas, the shrapnel ones; all three levels of them, the spike bomb he had given to the Hokage the previous day, and a special bomb created for mass-destruction.

Kurenai gave the man a list of what they needed, and he nodded, before assembling the listed items, which was quite long, and ten minutes later had four packages, whilst the four Genin explored the place in the meantime, not touching anything. There was everything of a more dangerous nature in here, from special blades with Kanjis giving them extra, and very dangerous, effects, to the more powerful version of the Chakra pills that the Akimichis created, to the most deadly of Naruto's weaponry and back again. Since they were now Junior ANBU, they were outfitted for the main chest-armour, the arm metal plates, two sets of standard black robes, plain white masks, which stuck to their faces by a layer of Chakra on the inside of the mask, and they were then handed an ANBU katana and the normal clothes for ANBU, and then show where the changing rooms were.

Naruto changed into the standard ANBU outfit, finding that the clothes were surprisingly comfortable and gave lots of mobility, and traced a few Kanjis on the clothes, which was like placing a tag with the same Kanjis on them, but made left nothing physical or visible to give any clues, and made his kunai and shuriken holsters bigger on the inside than out to be able to hold more if needed; he placed several trace-tags on the clothes to make them water-proof, to make it so that they would always regulate their temperature to keep him at a good temperature, and another to make them self-repairing, which was a tricky one, but when it worked, any rip or tear would be closed up on its own, which was pretty handy. He added a layer of protectiveness to the chest armour and arm guards, and kept the gloves as spares, though kept his own on, as they were definitely of a better quality. After all of that he put on the black cloak, which completely covered him, but was still very mobile, and he did the same things to it too.

He then looked around to try and find the mask, which seemed to want to play hide and stay hidden, despite the lack of hiding places, and in the process of turning his old clothes inside out to try and find it, he found several items, like his notepad that he always kept around, a small stash of his home-made Chakra pills, which were so much more powerful than the Akimichi version, but these would kill anyone else they were so powerful and they would fill his enormous Chakra reserves back up. Also in the process of trying to find the damn mask, he came across the wrapped package that the Hokage had given him a short while back, which he had completely forgotten about.

Shrugging, he unwrapped the wrapped package and opened it, and found a note on the outside of the object, which was wrapped up in foam.

_Naruto,_

_This is a little something for you which I got, as you need one in the line of work that you have chosen._

_Look after it well,_

_Sandaime Hokage._

Naruto put the note down and looked at the wrapped item, which he, obviously, unwrapped, and stared in amazement at the item that the Hokage had given him, and he suddenly found himself very glad that the mask had become illusive and caused him to open it and it solved a number of problems at once.

It was mask, but far from a plain white one. It was white, as always, with fiery red and blazing orange stripes, in the shape of a fox. It had slits for eyes and had ears poking up at the top. Its snout was short, but it was painted to make it look normal, and as if there was nothing off. On the forehead, like with other Hunter-Nin masks, there was an engraving of the Konoha leaf, identifying him as a Konoha Hunter-Nin. Smiling, he put it on, finding that the slits did nothing to hamper his sight, and he could see just as if he didn't have it on, which he guessed was a needed factor, and it wouldn't do for ANBU to not see a large blade coming towards them in the corner of their eyes because a mask was getting in the way. In fact, the only thing that the mask did was to get in the way of other peoples' sight to see his real face, and all of his senses were unhampered by it, which made things very good for him. He turned to inspect himself in the mirror, admiring his new look, trying to see if it was possible to see him at all, which it wasn't.

He packed up all of his old clothes into a spare bag which he kept on him, which he then made matter-less, and found the old mask hiding somewhere where he was sure hat he had checked, and he walked out of the changing rooms. Due to the time spent trying to find the mask, the others were all out before him, and were giving him curious looks about the use of facemask, but the shop-keeper, confused but who knew what the mask meant, continued with outfitting them. He got them all of the weapons to go into the holsters, and gave them a variety of different items in a utility pouch, and they were allowed to pick out certain items that they were interested in, which would benefit their skills.

Finally, they were done, and they left via a back exit, as anyone seeing them go in seeing them come out looking like that could put two and two together and end up with information that they didn't want people to know. They all found themselves in a back-alley, and all five people jumped up to the rooftops, using Chakra to jump far and stick to some places and others to not fall through the roofs.

"We're going training now," said Kurenai, and receiving four nods, they all travelled back to Training Grounds 15, where they began the teambuilding exercises, not unlike those done at the Academy sometimes, but much harder, much more fun, and actually building them up as a team rather than getting them to bicker a lot, and in this one they actually had to use their abilities and skill whilst solving the problems, which Shikamaru was responsible for understanding and mentally beating in record time.

When the four hours of teambuilding were finished (more like teambuilding was finished, taking them four hours) they were made to start Chakra control exercises, i.e. Tree-running, which Naruto, having done it before, did a different exercise, namely water-walking, though doing a load of exercises on top of it, trying to get better control over the vast ocean that was his Chakra, whilst the other three had to do the good ol' tree-running, and landing hard on their arses on the first few tries. Shino had come third in the class, Shikamaru came last, though that was just because he had slept through half of it, Inoka had passed high up in her year, and Naruto had come first by a lot; having been trained from age 3 helped a lot in that, and he had already done the exercise.

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After many long hours of Chakra training, evaluations and learning new skills which they hadn't even known existed, they had to make camp for the night, needing five different shelters, and with a sensei that was just sitting and reading, being very unhelpful.

"Well, we all need jobs," said Inoka. "Shikamaru, you go find firewood, and no stopping to look up at clouds. Naruto, if you could hunt for meant and fish, whilst Shino, you go foraging for fruits and stuff, and I'll go and get some fresh water. Naruto, could you create your clones to get wood to build the shelters?"

"No need, I have a much better way of doing it," replied Naruto, smiling reassuringly, and they all went off in their different directions. Naruto headed down to the stream, and started using senbon needles to kill the fish, and a clone would get the fish and throw it out into a large net.

He then went off to find meat, and came back to the clearing with a large net of fish, a deer slung over his shoulder, and three hares in his hand. He dropped them all on the side of the clearing, and clearing his throat, he performed a number of seals, until he activated the final one, and shouted: "**Shichuuka no Jutsu!** (_Four-Pillar Building Technique_)" A giant building grew out of the forest floor, though he kept it to two storeys tall, though with only one floor, and the Konoha symbol was carved over the large entrance. Smiling happily, he picked the meat and fish back up and carried them inside the building where they would now be staying at for a while, mentally thanking Kesshiro for having taught him that one. He placed all of the meats in the centre of the room, where there was a large open fireplace, and waited for the others to be back, using his light-sleeping method to pass time.

When the others all arrived back at the clearing, they were stunned to see such a huge thing there, not that Shino let it show on his face, and tentatively stepped inside, finding Naruto sleeping in a chair near the fireplace. He was woken by Shikamaru throwing one of the apples Shino had gathered by the skip-load, and Shikamaru placed some of the great amount of firewood that he had gathered inside the open fireplace.

"Bedrooms are that way," said Naruto, pointing towards five different doors, "this is the main room, and that side is a large storage room. Told you I had a better way of doing it."

"Bloody hell…" muttered Inoka as she looked around at the building made of the forest. When they finally got themselves collected, they lit the fire with a simple fire jutsu, and Naruto got a bunch of clones to gut the fish and prepare all of the meats and fruits, whilst the four of them took a bit of time to act their age, and they shared a jumbo pack of marshmallow which they roasted on the fire, learning a bit more about each other, Naruto explained about the mask and gave them a brief summary of what the years of his life were like, and they all learned about each others' childhoods and more about them in general.

Kurenai returned to the clearing and hour later, having gone to a tree to read in peace, and her jaw dropped at the sight, but managed to get inside, and she had soon joined them in finishing off the third pack of marshmallows that Shikamaru had gotten from the village earlier, as marshmallows were one of the only things that weren't troublesome, and secretly, he was addicted to the soft pillows of sugar. They put the marshmallows aside when the real food arrived, and all ate and talked way into the night.

\ 0 /

But the next morning, the real training began, and they were dragged out of their beds at dawn, then had to go running twenty miles through swamps where they had to pull a sleepy Shikamaru out of the swamps and quick-mud whenever he fell asleep in mid-step, and he was groaning the whole way, making them gag him after two miles and pulling him out of various swamps every half-mile or so. The training was harder than anything that they had ever had to do, but they went through it uncomplaining (except for one lazy Nara) and they reached the finish line all exhausted. But they were only granted ten minutes rest before they had to follow Kurenai, who had been reading the whole time.

They followed her down to the village, where they were thankfully going indoors, and they soon found themselves inside a large gym.

"You need to raise your muscle, and this is where you'll be doing it. You are to come here four times a week, for two hours at a time, longer if you particularly want to, but no less!" he ended, poking a groaning Shikamaru in the shoulder, who muttered something that sounded a lot like: 'Troublesome'.

She then had to show them how to operate all of the mechanical machines, and then they were let loose onto them. They all made a round of all of the machines to get a go at them, and Naruto was easily out of the four the one who was stronger, though he _had_ kind of been using weights that weighed incredible amounts and he had used the muscle gain rate pill too, though Inoka wasn't that badly off, and Shino had obviously done some sort of physical work out before, though Shikamaru, being as lazy as he was and spending his time playing different strategy games or watching clouds, so he little to no real muscle to speak of, and so was having a hard time of it.

They stayed there for two hours, which by the end of it, they were tired, but only had an hour for food before commencing sparring with each other, followed by weapons training, which was thankfully a lecture for now, as they all wanted nothing more than to just stay laying down, though unfortunately they were all tagged with special tags that would shock them awake if they started slipping towards sleep, and they had a demonstration showing how a huge load of weapons worked; the lecture/demonstration being given by the owner of the weapons shop where they had been outfitted. The day was mercifully now over, and they were released to go home and just crash down for the night, though with the tags as an alarm clock to wake them all up half-an-hour before dawn.

Naruto trudged back to his apartment, unfortunately having to pay attention as he didn't know the way off by heart, but found his way home in the fading light, but fate had decided that he was to be its new voodoo doll.

He entered his apartment sleepily, only placing a foot beyond the threshold before he was shocked out of thoughts of blissful sleep by: "NARUTO!"

He blinked, cowering slightly as he saw his enraged Mother march up to him, looking pissed off.

"AND WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO EVEN ASK US WHAT WE THINK OF YOUR DECISION!" she shouted loud enough for him to wonder if his eardrums were going to burst or not. He didn't even get a chance to even start thinking of an answer when she continued. "AND WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU EVEN TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT IT! YOU SIGNED THAT BLOODY CONTRACT YESTERDAY WITHOUT CONSULTING ANYONE, AND THEN DON'T EVEN TELL US WHAT YOU DID DESPITE HAVING A VERY GOOD OPPORTUNITY!"

Damn, he hated it when she started shouting, but then again, he did kind of deserve it, and he guessed that he really should have asked them about it first, but it had seemed like a very good decision to him at the time, and that opinion hadn't changed one bit, despite the heavy punishment that passed for training.

"Kaa-san…" he said desperately, trying to stop the tirade before any walls were demolished.

"What?" she snapped angrily, hands on hips and glaring at him dangerously.

"I… The opportunity wasn't one to be missed… I was chosen _specifically_ for it, and this is a one-off chance… I couldn't say no… I'm sorry for not saying anything, but I kind of forgot, and nothing was certain until everyone else had agreed…" he muttered to the ground.

Tsunade's expression softened and Naruto was only able to let out an 'eck' before she hugged the stuffing out of him.

"I just worry about you…" she sniffed. "You chosen 'career' isn't exactly one that is the safest of all jobs, and you're just a Genin…"

"Actually, technically a Junior ANBU," replied Naruto, which received a confused glare before she realised that he was actually wearing a black robe. "And before you start shouting again, it happened today," he said quickly, seeing the emotion flitting across her face, and Tsunade scowled lightly, hugged him tightly again with motherly concern, and poked him off to bed, where Naruto fell asleep instantly from exhaustion, glad that the shouting hadn't been any worse.

\ 0 /

The next morning at dawn, all four Genin/Jun.ANBU met up in the Gym for their morning workout, where Naruto handed them all one of the same small white pills that he had used all those years ago, having received permission from Kesshiro for his team-mates to use them, explained what they did, and all three swallowed them trustingly, and the morning workout began.

All three commented on the effectiveness of the pills, thanking him for them, though he just said that it would be best for the team for them to be able to progress far quicker, as it would mean that they would all be able to move onto other things.

They met up Kurenai at the training grounds, where she had them do tree-running endurance, which would improve their physical and Chakra stamina, whilst they also had to dodge Kunais thrown at them and have a log strapped to their backs, Shikamaru's one being heavier than he was, but they all had determination to finish and be a proper team, so they all did it, causing friendly rivalry between them to do the exercises quickest of all, and the three progressed far quicker now, and Kurenai was amazed when her training regimes were being done in half of the time predicted, leaving them with much more time for extra training, which they spent a part of on a lecture on Genjutsus, proper methods and cancelling technique, and a generally basic explanation on everything Genjutsu.

They then had a session of Ninjutsu by Hakate Kakashi, who arrived on time for once, though Kurenai telling him that it started three hours earlier than it did might have had something to do with that. They had a revision session on the different types of Ninjutsus, with the main four; Katon, Suiton, Doton and Futon, and going over the basic Katon Jutsu, as it _was_ the Country of Fire, and the other countries protected their Jutsus closely, though Naruto, as a travelling Nin managed to learn quite a few others. They went over a number of advanced things, until the hour with Kakashi was up, and the silver-haired pervert left to continue supervising his own team doing boring chores and getting back to his orange 'book', though Kurenai though of it more as an 'atrocity' instead. They all went to Ichiraku's for Lunch, where they talked and learned more about Kurenai. They were given the afternoon off to do whatever they wanted, as they had finished the day's exercises and then some, and Naruto decided to go exploring a bit.

He went around the Village, sight-seeing what little there was as a real tourist attraction, which was mainly the Hokage monument, and he spent half-an-hour just sitting and looking at the head of his Father.

_I will make you proud of me Dad._

\ 0 /

Please note: Reviews get the next chapters coming quicker. 


	5. Flames of Youth

-

Flames of Youth

-

Naruto's feet carried him in no particular direction as he was lost deep in thought, and soon found himself at what appeared to be a different Training Grounds, and was about to turn back when he heard sounds of combat coming from one area, and he went over to it via the trees around the Grounds, moving with silence that only came from years of practice.

He soon found himself perched on a branch watching a kid with massive eyebrows repetitively punch a log, counting upwards as he did so, and had bloodied bandages around his knuckles, and had the faintest of winces cross his face every time he hit the log, and quite rightly, the kid, who was actually a year his elder, was up to four-hundred and twenty-three.

Naruto dropped down behind him, and the kid at least had the senses to notice him and turn around quickly instinctively assuming a defensive position.

Naruto smiled, and the kid stood up straight again.

"Why do you keep hitting a log over and over again?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Because it is my goal to show that Geniuses can be beaten by a Genius of Hard-Work," replied the caterpillar-eyebrows kid.

"By beating your knuckles to death?" asked Naruto sarcastically.

The kid looked down at the ground.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, just wear gloves or something to soften the blow on yourself," said Naruto, and carefully unwrapped the bandages from the kid's knuckles, and remembering his medical lessons with Kaa-san, he passed the green Chakra over the knuckles, which all healed up like an accelerated movie, and did the same to the second hand. "Here," he said, and handed him the spare gloves he had in his back pocket which were the ANBU design ones.

The kid stared at the gloves, before beaming and putting them on.

"What's your name?" asked Naruto.

"Rock Lee," he replied, and Naruto introduced himself, shaking Lee's hand.

Naruto sensed something whilst in contact with Lee, and said: "You have a very low Chakra output."

Lee looked down again.

"That's why I want to be a Tai-Jutsu Master, just like Gai-sensei, because I cannot use Chakra without hurting myself badly. The doctors said that I only produce enough to survive," he said sadly.

"Well, if you've got Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast as your sensei, and you would go to these lengths to get better; then you'll definitely get somewhere. But why don't you just go to a gym or something?"

Lee shrugged. "Not the same really; though I understand the idea of it."

"You use weights?" asked Naruto, having noticed the slight strain whenever Lee moved, and Lee nodded. "Good start, I use them too, and they give a great advantage in a very hard fight. I've never once fully removed mine, in all of the years that I've had them." His watch alarm started beeping, and Naruto cursed softly. "Sorry, I've got to go." Lee nodded, showing that it was fine, and thanked him once again for the gloves before Naruto disappeared as swiftly as he had arrived.

He had set the alarm to tell him when he had to go, as the Hokage had asked to see him. He arrived at the tower soon, and had to wait a few minutes for the previous meeting that the Hokage had to finish, and he was then allowed through to where the Hokage was waiting for him.

"You wished to see me, Hokage-sama?"

"Please don't use Sama, it makes me feel older than I already am," said the Hokage softly, smiling.

"Very well. You wished to see me, Hokage-ojisan (old man)?"

The Hokage laughed merrily, and offered a seat, which Naruto took.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing; how you're fitting in and all that."

"Well, training is a little different to what I had imagined before coming, though that is to be expected with the special arrangement. I actually wanted to ask; why was this special team created only now?"

"Probably because the skills of different people in your team all fit together, and your turning up helped it, though also mainly because I thought that it would be a good idea to have one. All four of you are all very talented in your areas, and so far you appear to work very well as a team. You practically are ANBU, though without having to do missions until you have reached a certain point in your training, and then you will only have to do a few D-Rank missions, and you don't have ANBU duties, but you are trained as one and in time, you will become a proper team, ready to receive dangerous missions. You have already got experience in that field, whilst the others don't, and you have been training for far longer, which is why you have been made Team Captain. The team's main purpose is assassination, which means that you will all need to be ready for it."

"Ok, but still, why did you want me here?"

"I just wanted to discuss a few things, see how you were getting on with your team-mates, how you like the Village, so-on so-forth."

"I like my team-mates, despite Shino being incredibly mute, Shikamaru being incredibly lazy, and Inoka sometimes nagging us, but I still like them. The Village is nice, and homey, though I haven't seen all of it yet, but I plan to sooner or later."

"Great. So how is your training going, personally-wise?"

"It's actually fun, and we are learning a lot, but I personally need to get better Chakra control, which is incredibly hard, as my Chakra is rather… hyperactive…"

The Hokage chuckled. "Yes, your Father had the same problem, but that's because of the Kazame blood. Fir some unknown reason, all Kazames' Chakra are much more hyperactive, have been known for massive Chakra reserves, love of Ramen, and have all found that the really hard Jutsus are easier to get than the smaller ones, and Genjutsu is mainly useless for Kazames, though your Mother's side was renowned for Genjutsu and great Chakra control, so a mix of the two together means that you still have some hope in the field."

Naruto nodded, always glad to know more about his parents. "By the way, thanks a lot for the mask."

"My pleasure, Naruto. Now I believe that you needed Chakra control exercises to be getting on with…"

Naruto nodded, smiling, and took his customary leave via the window, and headed towards a Training grounds where a large body of water was marked, though stopped off at the library on his way there, finding Chakra-control exercise scrolls there, which he was able to take out without any sort of card or anything just because of the ANBU status thing, and his mask was unique, which was identification enough.

He chose one of the scrolls at random, cursing as it turned out to be a difficult one, and included the water, which was needed in a number of Chakra-control exercises; exactly why he had chosen that area in particular. He was there five minutes later, rolling up the scroll and placing it in a water-proof scroll pouch, and gathering Chakra into his feet, he walked out to the middle of the large lake. He then performed a few quick hand seals, and blew downwards. Every part of the water that was touched by the breath turned to ice. Ice was much harder to walk on with Chakra, as you had to create Chakra anchors to hold you in place. He then punched the foot-thick ice, which snapped, and whilst a large piece of ice dipped at one end and rose at the other, he froze the water in the hole he had created, strengthening it with Chakra, and he now had an icy slope to use.

He took a deep breath, and started moulding his Chakra to form a feeble anchor, which didn't hold him up at all, and he slid down the short length of ice again. He did it like tree-running, using a kunai to scratch where he had gotten to, and taking it at a run.

The next seven hours found him there, trying again and again to go higher and higher to beat his previous record, which slowly made its way further and further up the ice slope, which stayed frozen even under the glaring sun. Naruto might have lousy Chakra control, which was slowly improving, but what he did have was stamina, and determination, which were what kept him going long after most would have given up or crumpled in exhaustion, but he stuck it out until the end, and it took him a full seven hours to get to the end of the ice slope.

-

The next morning, they all went to the Gym again, where they all did their separate physical exercises, which was followed with stealth training, in which they learned all about effective camouflage methods, and how to quickly apply that in different conditions and areas. They were made to crawl through mud to get them coated in mud, and they then had to try to sneak up on Kurenai, and the mud was also there to protect them against the fireballs she threw when she spotted one of them.

By the end of the long, but fun, four hours, none of them had managed to get her, though Shikamaru had managed to get within five feet before she had sensed him and had hit him square in the chest with a fireball, making the mud turn into a hard clay-like substance which was a pain to get rid of.

After that they had a quite break for food, and then they were set upon by training dummies, and had to protect themselves from the dummies, which were set on Chuunin level to give them a real challenge, and they received a real beating before they had all managed to get rid of their own dummies with combined efforts. They were then taught minor healing, which helped a lot with the bruising, and they were also given ice-packs to help with the swelling in some areas.

After that they had another long break, as they were having another demonstration, this one about different escape methods, which they all soaked up like dry sponges to water, and the next task was to demonstrate what they had just learned, combining it with the camouflage lesson they'd had earlier. These lessons were all tiring, but instructive and fun, and the next activity was to couple camouflage and stealth with target-practice, with a Kurenai clone as the target, and they were given several simulations using Kurenai's Genjutsu, and they had to inspect the scenery and point out where good advantage points would be, though without Kurenai seeing, and they then had to put that plan into action.

Kurenai had to walk down a Genjutsu-dirt-path, waiting to see what the four Genins would do. When she came to one of the last places where she would imagine them attacking, therefore letting her guard down a bit, they attacked. Before she knew what was what, two hands shot up out of the ground and grabbed her ankles, keeping her in place and momentarily shocked. A flash-bang went off a way in front of her, which was odd, as it was too far away to be useful, but this flash-bang was actually a cross between a flash-bang and a flare, so the strong light lasted a while. Before she could do anything, her arms moved of their own accord, and she understood. The flare had been to lengthen Shikamaru's shadow to bind her in place whilst Inoka used her Shintenshin to boot her out of her own mind, which had been a large part of the Ino-Shika-Cho team, and this team was only missing an Akimichi for that, but the idea was the same. The flare had been a creation of Naruto's, and it was probably Shino who had grabbed her ankles, but no, that had just been a Naruto clone, and Shino was actually sucking out her Chakra, causing the Genjutsu to flicker and fail.

She got up shakily, congratulating them for a good plan, which unsurprisingly, had come from Shikamaru, intellectual Genius. She accepted the offered Chakra pill, and felt her strength return to her, before starting them on their next training, which was Sui-ren (Water training), and they all had to learn to swim properly, which was something that Shino wasn't able to do as he had holes for his bugs, which were troublesome, to use Shikamaru's word.

But the bug-man picked it up pretty quickly, using his own swimming stroke which he dubbed the 'Water beetle stroke', and of course, used a water beetle as inspiration and he conversed with a water beetle, learning more about water bugs. They then had to be able to move around under the surface of the water, using re-breathers, which as far as they understood, were like gas-masks, which purified the air that you blew out, allowing you to draw the oxygen blown out, and it allowed them to stay under for a whole ten minutes for those with large lung capacities, reusing their oxygen, instead of using hollowed out bamboo canes as snorkels like other Genin teams did.

They then had to learn how to fight in and on top of the water, and how to use the water to your advantage, all things to do with water training, and they spent their free time splashing around in the water and taking time to be kids. But that evening, they had to begin night-training, which meant navigating in the dark, and she taught them a simple but effective ANBU trick, which she had learned from a friend, which sent out a small and invisible Chakra pulse, which acted like echolocation, telling them whenever they were about to walk into trees.

They were let loose again at past midnight, though the next morning they would start at seven to make up for it.

The next day once again passed in a flurry of different activities which were very educational, and they would also be visited by various ANBU people who helped with the areas that Kurenai was not able to do, and they learned how to communicate through sign language, a must for ANBU, and they also learned code-language too, which was less used, but very useful to know.

The first week suddenly found itself over, surprising them all, and suddenly, the training went up a notch, with the schedule which had been changed around a bit. Stealth had now become a large game of hide and seek, but the hardest bit was that they had to wear reflective and very noticeable orange vests on top of the robes, which just made it much harder, and they had some of ANBU's best trackers after them, who would later also teach them how to successfully track each other afterwards, using any small disturbance or broken twig to guide them, and it was in this that Shikamaru excelled where he lacked in the physical side of things, though he was far from scrawny now, and all four Genin now wore weights to get stronger.

In teamwork they had also progressed beyond recognition, and they could operate in complete silence, and could sometimes communicate just with their eyes. As avid inventor, Naruto had of course created several creations to benefit the team, including, and these had taken a lot of free time, a pair of contact lenses which would have several options, mainly infra-red, heat sensor, ultra-violet sight, and all other sights which weren't plain sight and helped them loads during night-training, of which they did a bit of every night, even when not necessary.

But now that the first week was over, it was time for the new schedule to begin, and they were meeting their new Tai-Jutsu sensei in the mornings to do exercises with him instead of the Gym, and that was where their sanity went into decline.

_**Monday 5:02am**_

They all went together towards Training Grounds 18, where they would be starting the first day with their new Tai-Jutsu sensei, Konoha's self-proclaimed Beautiful Green Beast, the one and only Maito Gai. When they arrived, they saw their new instructor already there and warming up with someone who Naruto recognized as Lee once you got past the initial impression that it was Gai's clone. Both had bobbed haircuts, massive (and very prominent) eyebrows, matching green spandexes and bright orange legwarmers with weights beneath them.

"WELCOME PASSIONATE STUDENTS TO YOUR NEW TAI-JUTSU LESSON, DIRECTED BY MYSELF; MAITO GAI AND MY BEAUTIFUL ASSISTANT LEE. I AM HERE TODAY TO TEACH YOU THE BEAUTIFUL ART OF TAI-JUTSU, THE ART OF UNARMED COMBAT. NOW COPY THE STARTING EXERCISES THAT WE ARE DOING, AND THEN WE WILL BE TEACHING YOUR YOUTHFUL SPIRITS A SPECIAL STYLE!" he bellowed, making all four Genin wince.

"Told you that you would need ear-plugs," mutter Inoka, and the three boys all muttered their thanks, but either Gai and Lee hadn't heard it or had just ignored it, as both were yelling everything at the top of their lungs, but they followed the instructions anyway. They were then shown the starting steps to the Impact Tai-jutsu style, which was the cousin of the Iron Fist style, as both used strength for it, though both worked better the more speed you could get.

From their first impressions of Gai and Lee, at least whilst put together in the same 100 meters of each other was: 'weirdoes', but they knew what they were doing, but the two identical weirdoes truly were an odd pair, and would sometimes burst into tears with each other at the drop of a hat, and then go into the 'nice guy' pose, which rendered all flash-bangs obsolete in comparison, and their wacky ways left Inoka giggling for an hour afterwards, whilst the three boys were left winding at the thought of those spandexes and how you would have to have already been castrated if you didn't want the green leotard-like costumes to do it for you.

Their next training was stealth and tracking, which was taught by the sickly Gekkou Hayate, and they went over what they already knew and had to use stealth to fight, which was incredibly hard, but they managed it using only the main three Jutsus needed to graduate; the Bunshin, Henge and Kawarimi, like by using Kawarimi with a Bunshin at the last moment, and attacking as someone else at random moments and Naruto helping them with Henged Kage Bunshins, and they also had fun using Shuriken Bunshin, making illusionary weaponry, and there was also the fact that there were four of them against one, giving them an advantage no matter what, especially with their team-work.

Kakashi was obviously late, so they used that time, like previously planned, as a Genjutsu lesson from Kurenai, who taught them a Genjutsu that dulled the opponent's senses, and also how to better detect the actual use of Genjutsus, which was usually done by feeling that something was off about something, but identifying them was much harder, so they were usually just countered by mustering an amount of Chakra that surpassed the amount used to create it in the first place, and placed in the seal for 'Kai', which was the universal Genjutsu cancellation method.

They had Kakashi when he turned up, four hours late, and they all had to show which Ninjutsus they were able to do, and he then taught them all one which none of them knew, though he was slightly cautious because he had been sure that Naruto was holding back. He taught them all a Suiton technique, which would make a water shield, which was useful against fire attacks, but they didn't get close to the size of his own. He then gave them another technique, which created a wave of water out of nowhere to attack their opponents as homework, and they moved onto a different lesson, which was learning how to sense Chakra, which would mean that it would be very hard to be sneaked up on and easier to track somebody in a crowd.

But they weren't allowed to leave yet, even past nightfall, as they had to continue night training, though this one was different, as they had rubber kunais thrown at them from all directions, covered in red paint, marking how many times they had been hit.

Then they had to sleep in the forest again, though they weren't allowed to use the forest building like last time, so instead they strung hammocks up high up in the trees near one another, and all fell asleep as quickly as possible, so that they could sleep as long as possible until dawn next morning when they'd have to face Gai again.

-

"YOSH, THE FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN STRONGLY IN ALL OF YOU TODAY, MY PASSIONATE STUDENTS!"

Four people groaned whilst a fifth cheered, so no need to say who they were. They were still amazed at the volume which Gai could achieve, and he'd make a brilliant alarm clock, not only because he would wake you up immediately with that, but you would want to be as far away from him as possible, so you would get up damn quick to escape him. And of course, that set Naruto thinking and smirking.

They followed Gai's tutelage in Tai-Jutsu, getting better at the Impact style, which was very simple, but much better than the Academy Tai-Jutsu that everyone but Naruto knew, which was just defensive.

They had to do all of Gai's mad trainings, which were just plain odd for some of them, but being a Tai-Jutsu Master, he must have done something correctly, and they followed it willingly though with ear-plugs, or a CD player in Naruto's case.

After the morning workout with Gai, they had to play hide and seek with ANBU members whom they only knew as Trigger and Darkcrow, and after two hours of constantly trying to hide, even inside a swamp, but they were always found within ten minutes, but that time was slowly improving, and then they had to do it the other way around with them trying to find the two ANBU's twenty clones, which proved to be a challenge.

Actually, it turned out that the original schedule had been binned, due to clashing schedules, and they just did a number of things every day randomly, which also meant that they had to be prepared for it. After lunch, they had the chronically late pervert Jounin Kakashi, who was taking a break from listening to his own team's bickering and made them do the legendary Konoha bell test.

They all understood the point of the test, and they would have worked together to get the bells in any case. Shino attacked which his bugs from afar, making Kakashi have to dodge them instead of burning them all to a crisp, as that would be a very bad move with the Aburame around. The four's main tactic was for Shino to start weakening their opponent without them noticing, then Naruto would do the main damage either close combat or from afar, weakening them down completely until they would struggle less against Shikamaru's shadow, and then Inoka would take over their mind and make them jump off a cliff or something, though they could also do it with Naruto damaging them, using the target for infiltration purposes. Naruto was also getting used to being the Team Captain, which the others all said that he was the best choice for, and he would be the primary commander in missions.

They were given a few D-Rank missions, ones that actually had to use a tiny smidgeon of skill, so no painting houses, but it did mean that they had to catch that bloody cat Tora about ten times so far, and had the scratches to prove it, and had eventually just gotten annoyed and Naruto had shot it with a tranquilizer to get it to come along without nearly scratching their faces off.

They were also given mock-missions, which meant that they had to go through a forest at night to steal a scroll guarded by no less than ten clones, and leave again without being hit by a single red-paint-coated-rubber-kunai as they wet along, and they dispatched all clones as quickly as possible, grabbing the scroll and leaving before back-up arrived, which was on a two-minute countdown from the start of the assault on the clones.

They were slowly progressing from getting through it 30 of the time, and were now aiming towards 40 as a milestone, however bad 40 was, but it was only training, and that sort of mission would have been B-Rank at the least, so 40 for Genin was very good.

The first week came and passed pretty quickly for them, and by the end of it their heads felt like they would explode from all of the extra information, and were all finally heading home after a week in the forest, having a day off for their surprisingly good progress.

-

"Kurenai, your report?" asked the Hokage.

Kurenai cleared her throat. "Their teamwork is advancing incredibly quickly, and they are using their skills alongside each others'. Shikamaru is becoming less lazy and actually has some ambition to do well, and is practicing his Kage Mane now. Shino is opening up more, though still doesn't speak much, and is using more of the wildlife around him to help, instead of just the Kekkei bugs inside him. Inoka is showing good progress, and has apparently nearly finished a technique that she has been making for over a year now. Naruto is far more confident as Team Captain now and the others look to him for instruction when they are on the field, and his skills are extraordinary, but I get the impression that he is holding back on a number of much more powerful skills."

"I'm not surprised; really, he has been trained by a Hunter-Nin who was renowned for his power and effectiveness in the field." _Along with his tenant and his bloodlines._

Kurenai nodded, frowning slightly, but let it drop as they Hokage would have a good reason to not tell her something.

"Here are the comments their assorted instructors have made about their progress and skills in the different areas," she said, handing over a thick folder, which the Hokage took, nodding. "I gave them a day off to do whatever they want, which will probably end up being more training, but this week will be more relaxed; learning their families' techniques better and such, more personalised training, and for them to train what they feel that they need to train."

The Hokage nodded in agreement of the idea. They talked for a bit longer, and she left the Hokage to read the folder alone.

-

PLZ REVIEW!

I'm not going to really be doing any Auther's Notes at the beginning or end, as that pushes up the Word Count unfairly.

**Note: VOTING FOR SHIPS IS STARTING!****  
**

I am not listing the possibilities, until people have said which SHIPs they want, and the listed ones will become possibilities later on. No Naru/Hina, as she hasn't had his bright personality to like him for. Naru/Saku is also way out, as this is a fic with Sakura bashing.

Please, no flames, though **_constructive_** critisicm is allowed.

I'll try to update sooner than this time, as it has been around three weeks since the last, and for that, I apologise.


	6. Bloodlines

This chapter will explain more about certain things, but prepare to be confused, coz I sure am. No idea where this is going.

**SOZ ABOUT THE LONG WAIT! SCHOOL BEING BLOODY ANNOYING!**

A long chapter for you guys who waited so long. An equally long chapter for those who didn't.

**DISCLAIMER**: Never done one of these before, for the simple reason that if anyone actually believes that I do own any of this (apart from Kesshiro who is my own OC), then they are quite plainly too stupid to sue me.

-

Bloodlines

-

It was in the process of beating a log to pieces Lee-style that Naruto found his thoughts wondering across many things as he practiced monotonously. He found this happening quite a lot, he realized, as he switched from fists to his scaled-down No-Dachi, slashing at the log repetitively, for a thousand slashes in every direction, which was the gruelling training that Kesshiro was making him do. They had been told that they had a week off from group training to focus on their family abilities, and Kesshiro had started getting used to hearing Naruto swearing loudly at his Brother for being an irritating, slave-driving twat again.

"Kesh," said Naruto. "Do I actually have any bloodline abilities?" he asked, surprising Kesshiro.

"To be honest, I haven't got a clue, but I would assume that you have, seeing as the Kazame family is one of the top three families in Konoha, among the Hyuugas and Uchihas, though Kazames are the leading clan, despite numbers which are even lower than the Uchihas, but in essentials, you are Konoha royalty."

"Really?"

"Yeah, well the Shondaime, your distant ancestor who is the blood link between you and Baa-chan, did found the Village, and the Kazame line passed down from his Brother, the Nindaime, rather than to Tsunade-baa-chan's family, as the blood passes along the Hokages, and the Nindaime became the head of the family when he took up the role of Hokage, which was before the Shondaime settled down and married. Hmm, Hokage-Ojisama might know something."

"Alright, I'll go and ask him then."

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere until you've finished this…" said Kesshiro seriously, sporting a Cheshire-cat smile that showed an abnormal amount of teeth, all of them very pointy. It was in the same category as the Puppy-eyes no Jutsu, known as one of the most effective Jutsus to use for persuading someone without physical force, though this one was slightly more on the opposite side of the spectrum.

"Annoying git..." Naruto grumbled, getting back to slashing the log repetitively.

-

"Naruto, thankyou for saving me from this dead-boring paperwork," said the Hokage, who looked very old at that moment, and seeing the pile of papers and ledgers on his desk, Naruto wasn't surprised at all.

"Not a social visit unfortunately," said Naruto sadly. "I was just sort of wondering if you would know if there was anything left of my parents' around somewhere."

The Hokage struck a thoughtful pose, before his face brightened up, along with a look of slight shame on his face.

"Forgive me for forgetting all about it," he said guiltily. "The Kazame Manor is still standing perfectly, not having been seen since Arashi sealed it before going off to the Kyuubi… Yes, it's just behind Training Grounds 46, which are private ones if you wish to use them for your own personal training."

Naruto nodded gratefully, and quickly left via his favoured exit way, the window, and he darted across rooftops towards Training Area 46, which was near the outskirts of Konoha. The Training Grounds there looked untouched for many years, and the whole place was seriously overgrown, since nobody had ever needed to use it, therefore it had gone unattended. Kesshiro had come along with Naruto, having seen him dash over rooftops very shortly after having entered the Hokage's tower, so had tagged along with him.

"Ok, it should be around here somewhere," said Kesshiro in a deadpanned voice as they looked at the Training Grounds and the twelve miles of forest that sprang out everywhere in three directions.

"Any shortcut methods that we can try?" asked Naruto hopefully.

"I dunno, you're the inventions freak here," replied Kesshiro 'helpfully'.

"Of course, I had momentarily forgotten that you were after all just a lazy, useless sack of horse-"

"Ok, Ok, time for that later," said Kesshiro, his arm around Naruto's shoulders; looping back around and covering Naruto's mouth tightly. "But for now, we have to find a damn house in a massive forest."

"Shouldn't be too far into the forest and its probably got Genjutsus all around… Since Genjutsus usually attack the sight first and foremost, then we can't rely on what we see as evidence. That means that we have to use smell, which is near impossible seeing as we have no idea what smell we are looking for, and the last time I checked, and abandoned house doesn't make noises."

"Nor would sense of taste be any good, unless it's a gingerbread house. Ok, so that leaves touch."

"So we're essentially back to square one," replied Naruto.

"Seems like it," agreed his Brother. "Though if we just find the Genjutsu, then head for the area in which it is coming from."

"Great plan, except for one minor detail."

Which is?"

"They would undoubtedly have wards that block against seeing or even sensing the Chakra used, or Hyuugas could prance around inside the place all they want, or claim it as their own. No, it has to have a bit more than just that protecting it," replied Naruto wisely.

"Smartass," was all that Kesshiro said in reply to that.

"So the good old fashioned Search Method: Seek and Explode?"

"Sure," replied Kesshiro, and both began moulding Chakra, causing two near-identical seals to appear on their stomachs, though they had long ago gotten used to that, and a few seconds later, simultaneous cries of 'Tajuu Kage Bunshin!" was heard, and six hundred clones stood in the place. 'Seek and Explode' was the nickname they had come up for simply sending out a horde of Kage Bunshins to find something, generally big, by running slap-bang into them, an exploding, though they kept one hundred of them to get the Training Area back under control, whilst they sat in a tree talking about what had happened so far in the village, not having had much of a chance to talk about things recently.

-

It was after two hours of Kage Bunshins searching the whole forest that they finally decided that Seek and Explode wasn't going to work, especially with the Genjutsu that made you walk in circles without realising it over the place. They had gotten rid of that Genjutsu the easiest way (for them), which was to let off a pulse of Chakra, which short-circuited the Genjutsu, causing it to fail. Unfortunately. This got them only a tiny bit closer to what they were looking for, but that was soon corrected. Naruto used the echo-location device that he had created for his team, and he had been asked to let the rest of ANBU make use of it, which he gladly agreed to, and he sent out repetitive sound waves from it whilst they walked, whilst using his eyes to compare what he saw and what was actually there.

When they finally found the location of the place, they still couldn't see or even touch it, due to the amount of protections on the Manor.

"Well this is a bugger," muttered Kesshiro, staring at the very large blank area where they knew the house to be.

"Why do I get the feeling that the answer is in fact incredibly simple?" asked Naruto tiredly.

"Probably because it is," replied Kesshiro, picking up Naruto quickly, and threw him bodily into that space. Naruto collided rather painfully with something big and far more solid than his face, and like a ripple moving in a pond, stone was being uncovered from where Naruto had hit. Very quickly, the wall surrounding the house was uncovered, and they then started seeing what was undoubtedly the Kazame Manor; which definitely rivalled anything those Hyuuga pricks might have.

"Holy…"

Shit!" finished Kesshiro loudly, both of them grinning madly. The Kazame property was absolutely massive, and thy must have gotten a Master Genjutsu user to ward the place seeing how well it had been hidden. "Bloody hell, this place looks expensive…"

"I'm liking it already," said Naruto happily.

"It took you this long?"

"Shut up."

The inside of the house was even bigger than it appeared on the outside, with over fifty rooms that were all already made for the next person to enter. Naruto realised why everyone called his dad a seals genius, seeing just how many Jutsu tags had been used in the place. There were seals all over the place, hidden, keeping everything clean, and explained why there wasn't a layer of dust anywhere. The Training Grounds outside the house that the clones had tidied up was nothing in comparison to the private training area at the back of the house. It was just one long assault course which looked painfully hard and made him wince just by looking at it. Inside, there was a whole room dedicated to a forge where weapons could be made, and all of the equipment was ready and waiting for him.

The kitchen was stocked fully, with seals for preservation all inside the fridge, which they raided for food quickly, and went back outside to observe the grounds after finishing. The whole woods surrounding the house was private property, though they were the only ones to know that, and didn't really mind either. After touring the extensive grounds, they went back inside and visited the lounge, which was big enough and filled with enough things to be sure that Sundays wouldn't ever be boring. But when they came back in, a sealed envelope waited for Naruto on the coffee table. He picked it up, sat back in one of the excruciatingly comfortable chairs. And started reading.

_My Son,_

_If you are reading this, then it means that everything went right, and the Kyuubi has been sealed inside of you with my soul, and you're left parentless since your Mother died at childbirth; as she had refused to not fight whilst heavily pregnant. For this I am sorry, but I hope that you have found somebody who cares deeply about you, and treasure them always._

_On a different and hopefully lighter note: the wards to the house are now tied to you, and only those who you personally invite in will be able to find it._

_As my son, I expect you to learn all of my trademark Jutsus, and make a whole slew of your own, whilst pranking everyone to death. Find a man called Jiraiya, who is probably near the Southern Konoha Hot Springs, where he will be 'researching' for the umpteenth book in his series of filth, or at the bath houses, for the same reason. Despite his outwards appearance, he is a very powerful Ninja, and one of the three Sannin._

Naruto suddenly remembered where he recognized Jiraiya's name from: Kaa-san had often talked of that 'bloody pervert Jiraiya'.

_He was also my sensei, and is the only person alive who knows the Rasengan; one of my two main moves, and incredibly powerful. The other, the Hiraishin, is mainly about seals, which is a subject that you will have a natural affinity to, and can be found in the Family Library. I hope that you have mastered all of the moves on the scrolls that were given to you from the ones that I left for you to learn._

_Now, onto the good part: our bloodlines. Yes, that is Bloodlines, plural, as every Kazame has the family bloodline, and a product of another bloodline. The standard Kazame Bloodline is being able to stand incredibly high speeds, which is what allowed me to create and use the Hiraishin, as the speeds would kill a normal human. In fact, we are able to sustain physical and mental odds that would beat most humans, and we are able to open most of the Chakra Gates without suffering after-effects._

_The second bloodline is very different. It is different because it affects every Kazame differently, and is highly unpredictable. That is why it will give you an ability which only you will ever have. It was previously impossible to know what that ability was until you accidentally used it and recognized it for what it was, but given my ultimate prowess at sealing (no showing off (well maybe a bit)) I created a way of finding out, though I have absolutely no idea if it will work for a Kazame who doesn't know what theirs is already. Well, give it a try and find out._

_Another thing we are famed for is having a photographic memory and ability at adapting to all sorts of situations. Our excellent memory allows us to do basically the same as those pompous Uchihas. One look and we can copy the Jutsu, because we remember everything we see of someone doing the jutsu, so we can remember the hand-seals. The only thing we don't have is red eyes and a record for insanity and spontaneous bloodlust._

_But you also have your Mother's bloodline. The Uzumakis were well known and named the Uzumaki Hunters, due to all being in the Hunter-Nin profession. It is less of a bloodline limit and more of inherited natural talent in Tai-jutsu, Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu and Bojutsu, though I am sorry to say that my side of the family buggered up your Genjutsu indefinitely, since we all have a condition known as Chakra Chaos, where our Chakra is highly unstable and makes it so that we are unable to go very far in healing and Genjutsus. You can find the instructions of the Uzumaki Kenjutsu style in he Library, along with information about absolutely everything, as the library is more extensive than the Hokage's Archives; containing secrets about clans that the Council of old farts got rid of in the Hokage's Archives, not wanting their clan's dirty secrets being known. Learn them and use it as blackmail material (even a Hokage can be nasty sometimes, and don't underestimate Sandaime. He might be ancient but he's also Hokage for a reason.)_

_Finally, I leave a message saying that I hope for the best in your future, and find a nice girl that you love and marry her and protect her with everything you can, before making me a lot of Grandchildren who can appreciate my Legacy like star-struck grandchildren do… sorry, got away with myself there… But seriously, live life to the fullest and make me proud and my last words of advice is simply: don't see the face of an angry Medi-Nin's ire._

_All my love,_

_Your Father;_

_Kazame Arashi, _

_Yondaime Hokage._

Naruto smiled, wiping away the tears that had run down his face upon reading the letter from his Father. He'd never before gotten a letter from his Father which told him this much. The only actual letter he'd gotten apart from the instructions to the scrolls was a short letter that basically told him who his Father was and a short explanation on his family, but he had been spared of the long letter due to his age.

Kesshiro put an arm around his younger Brother comfortingly, whilst Kit nuzzled his ear sympathetically. They stayed like that for a number of minutes, before Naruto wiped away the remainder of his tears and his expression of happiness and comfort was replaced by one of determination which made Kesshiro smile even more, knowing that whatever happened now would just spell even bigger trouble for the enemy, and Naruto predictably headed for the Library.

-

Naruto headed straight for the library, remembering that he had seen a sign on a door that marked the library, and when he found it, he found himself on a balcony two floors up; judging by how far down the floor was when he leaned over the railed edge. Walkways ran alongside the colossal bookcases on all three floors of library, and there had to be millions of books and scrolls in there, all about something or the other. He had soon located the scrolls that he wanted, as unlike stereotypical huge libraries, this one was far more modern, and his family's use of seals meant that you only had to think of a book and it would come to the desk on the ground floor of the library, and the rest was just for storing the books and browsing.

He sat at the desk, pouring over several books, amazed by the amount of information in the place, and made sure that he would put it to good use, and he had started off by finding out how to find out his power with his Father's untested system, but it unfortunately hadn't worked, and he was currently looking up books on sealing. He knew basic sealing, as Kesshiro had made sure that he was at least basically versed in everything, to round off his skills, and Naruto had really enjoyed sealing, as it helped a lot in his pranks and inventions. But this was much more advanced sealing, and he was loving every moment that he was learning. It turned out that the working area was also used for experimenting, which he found dead useful, and he got out the dreaded red leather bound journal that he kept on him all of the time. It was the dreaded journal because in it contained all of Naruto's ideas and theories, along with the finished products of everything. He had managed to create a seal a while ago which allowed him to have practically unlimited space in it, and he had filled up a good portion of that unlimited space. The security on it was nothing short of impossible, and rightly so, seeing how much time he'd spent working on it. Everything used on and in the book was all his own creations, which were numerous, and there were about a hundreds times more ideas in it that hadn't been published than ones that had. He had many ideas which were rather optimistic, downright ludicrous, smart, and works of a genius mind which has a knack for inventing. Within its pages also lay the plans for his longest unfinished project, which was the most genius of the lot, and theoretically would work, but his theoretically often gave way to disaster and an infuriated Brother when paint was slightly more permanent in hair than he'd planned.

Using the book he was currently holding, he had very shortly created a Jutsu Tag which would self combust and stay alight for three hours, and was ignited by a wireless thread of Chakra, if thread can be wireless (which it can't. Oh well…). He then worked on a second Jutsu tag which recreated the effects of a specific Jutsu, and recorded down the exact Kanjis on the tag using a scanning tag that he had made especially for it after one unmentioned mishap a few years back, and sorted them away for later use.

He grabbed a few more books, looking for a Jutsu that he had seen mentioned in one of the books which sounded fascinating and useful, but to his greatest annoyance, he couldn't find it in the immediate vicinity.

**You know, you could also ask the millennia-old brilliantly knowledgeable fox that resides inside of you...**

'_Kyuubi, how about a bit of help?'_

**I'm not sure, now that you've hurt my feelings, I'm not sure if I do want to help anymore…**

'C'mon, I'll get you some chewy treats if you do…'

**DON'T MOCK ME!**

'Hey, you're the one who tore apart that packet a few days ago and felt sick because you ate the whole packet, including the wrapping.'

Kyuubi grumbled loudly in his head, before saying: **Fine, I'll help you. The Technique is known as the** **_Chi Bunshin_** **(Blood Clone** apparently, correct me if I'm wrong **technique, which was used a lot as personal slaves in the days of yore, but it was then looked down upon because people used it to fake their own deaths and far more-than-registered Nukenins were running around.**

'_So how do I do it?'_

**Wipe a streak of your blood onto a firm surface, like you would for the summoning. Then perform the following seals**, he said, showing Naruto a bunch of seals in his mind, which Naruto immediately memorized. **And that's pretty much it, though I would suggest trying to learn it with only one hand seal like the Kage Bunshin. These clones are also incredibly useful because what they learn and remember, you learn and remember, which makes them ideal for scouting, as they don't have to report back to you, and of course, it makes them great for doing boring tasks. Not to mention that they die like a real body, and don't disappear in a puff of Chakra.**

Naruto nodded to himself, before trying out the technique, and got nothing.

**You need more Chakra than for a Kage Bunshin, as these have to take a permanently solid form. You're basically creating a human body, you know.**

Naruto nodded again, and tried the technique, pushing bout ten times more Chakra into the blood mark that he'd made on the floor, like Kyuubi had told him to, and this time, the Blood seemed to expand greatly, before rising upwards, and fast taking shape. It formed a red clone of Naruto, and then changed colours to match its creator, and stood there stock still, looking almost catatonic.

'_Thanks Kyuu,'_ thought Naruto gratefully.

**No problem, Kittling, just remember who's the best around here.**

Naruto rolled his eyes, and set the Blood Clone to work through the mental link that now bound them, and he received information unconsciously all of the time as the Clone read, and he went about creating a load more clones, thankful for his massive Chakra reserves that were over a hundred times bigger than what they were when he first began training, and back then he had the Chakra capacity of a high Chuunin, even at age 3. This now meant that he beat the Hokage in terms of Chakra capacity, and without even taking into account Kyuubi's endless Chakra. He would basically never run out of Chakra, unless he fought some hugely epic battle with an incredibly powerful enemy, and then he would use Kyuubi's Chakra, which was something he had learned to do early on in his life, as he needed it for summoning the more powerful Kitsunes.

He created more Blood Clones, which went off to research whatever he wanted to find out about, and he soon had about thirty clones researching, making him decide that he should go and look up his Bloodlines himself, and set off to do just that.

-

_The Uzumaki Hunters are feared warriors all around the Shinobi continent, for a number of reasons. First of all, we are all Hunter-Nin of the highest class, starting in the profession at a young age, and we have a pull towards that job that will only grow stronger as we grow older. We are also feared for our record. We hold all of the records associated with Hunter-Nins, including Uzumaki Hiraisha's 'most Nukenins defeated in an hour', with a record-breaking 27, and all of them were B-Rank or above. But another of our most notable facts is that we make most of what we use ourselves, and we have created a number of new weapons, and we were even the ones who created the Kunai, which is why the family fortune, which sits untouched in the Konoha bank's deepest vaults, is so large, and constantly expanding._

_Sadly, we are also dying out thanks to the disease epidemic which has already claimed the lives of so many Shinobi here in the Hidden Village of Shadows._

_Naruto's eyes widened. Hidden Village of Shadows? What the hell was that?_

_Even I've never heard of it, contributed Kyuubi, surprising Naruto seeing as the fox was bloody ancient and new a hell of a lot of obscure things._

_We have always been seen as demons for the ease with which we take out Nukenins, and how much we are unbothered by the sight of blood, and I suppose that it is true that we do have Demonic Blood going back about fifty generations, but the explanation we fear is much more than that. We do not have long left, an will therefore not be able to find out before most of our lives are claimed by this disease that will claim so many more lives. The Hidden Village of Shadows is probably the only village on the Shinobi continent which is truly hidden, being completely self-sufficient. We must have Demonic blood in our veins, though, as this village only allows those with demonic blood to enter, and all humans die instantly, and it is said that this village was built as a refuge from the prejudicial humans that outnumber us so greatly._

_We also do not know much about our own bloodline, and we ask whoever is reading this to unlock the secrets behind our bloodline, as by the time this is read, and is only readable by a member of the bloodline, we will be gone._

_Today I have sent away my youngest daughter Yuko to continue the bloodline. Luckily for us, the Uzumaki genes are heavily superior (not in a boastful way) and will never be thinned by the introduction of outside blood, though it will mean that it cancels out the secondary bloodline, passing only ours down through the generations. This is once again a result of the demonic blood, which is a long-ago used defensive technique for survival of a demonic clan, and I just hope that the clan will still live on today._

_All my luck,_

_Uzumaki Yoni._

Naruto finished the letter that had come to the table when he had asked the library for the Uzumaki Bloodline, and felt himself more puzzled than he was before he had read the letter.

Great, more mysteries to uncover…

-

Naruto had left his Blood Clones in the library and left it, and soon located Kesshiro appreciating the fine sword craftsmanship of the Uzumakis against a set of training dummies. Naruto soon joined him, and using one of the swords that had Kanjis running down the side of the blade to make it indestructible, they had a sword-fight that sent clashing noises reverberating around the room for about an hour or so. When they were done trying out different weapons, which took a further two hours, they went back outside to set up the training grounds just outside the house, leaving the private one at the back for another time, as it was designed specifically to train the Uzumaki and Kazame abilities (the two clans had been merged together when the Uzumaki blood had failed to overwrite the powerful Kazame blood, and since the two families only had a few members in each at the time, they had agreed to merge the two houses together, seeing as all future generations of Kazames and Uzumakis would be of both lines). They repaired the damaged equipment already there using wood that they got from the forest around the house, doing the work manually, which was slow, but productive, and they rebuilt the assault course, using extra weapons, and they stayed there for over six hours creating it with the help of thirty Kage Bunshins from the both of them, and they'd had a Blood Clone of Naruto's get whatever supplies they didn't already have or could get from the forest from the shops in the village and come back up with them. It took surprisingly little time to get the whole place fixed up, taking only ten hours as a combined effort, which included a full length assault course at jounin level, a long chain of seals around the area which when activated would make the ground turn into Doro Bunshins or Iwa Bunshins, and attack whoever was training there, so that the Bunshins would go back to the earth when defeated to be used again. They had also created a pretty large body of water using water Jutsus, where they could practice their Suiton and Katon Jutsus. Naruto was sort of able to use Mokuton Jutsus, being of distant descent of the Shondaime, and they created a new set of trees to practice whatever against or on, and they had targets set up inside the trees which would swivel around randomly using seals, which Naruto was constantly getting better at.

Deciding that they still had time to kill, they created another training course, though this one was different, and they made it inside the forest that surrounded the house, and would also serve as further protection, seeing as how the woods were rigged up with over a thousand kunai throwers that were rigged to motion detectors. The idea of the new course was that they had created a fake forest path, mutating the trees to allow great spots for the fake attackers, which were just Kage Bunshins that were created by Naruto's newest creation. It was basically a Chakra power source, and was made from a very powerful Crystal that had seals all around it, and formed a synthetic Chakra system, using Naruto's greatest plausible theory, and this proved that it worked like he thought it was. The crystal would recharge itself when the course wasn't being used to always be active when it was in use.

The morning after, they spent a good deal of time going through the assault course and making improvements to keep on making the course harder, to try and create a course that even the Hokage himself would have trouble with. Naruto was putting his week off to good use, and learning techniques from his family, and on the third day, he started going through his Dad's notes, which were far less organized than his own which were inside his journal, but they were clear enough, despite the untidy scrawl which was a common factor between the two of them. He managed to work out the starting steps that his Father had used for creating the legendary Hiraishin no Jutsu, which had been the winning factor in the Konoha-Iwa war. But all in all, Naruto had to admit that whilst the technique itself was practical in the sense that the use would be able to get somewhere incredibly fast, in was impractical in the sense that the user needed a special object already in a place before the technique could be used, and so had to be premeditated, which was something that despite its usefulness in battle, was something for geniuses like Shikamaru who could tell where the enemy was headed wo miles away because he'd had bacon for breakfast, or something equally brain-bogglingly idiotic. Nope, Naruto needed something that would allow him to travel at very high speeds, which didn't include taking off his weights, and hopefully by just placing highly complicated but possible tags on his legs, which would allow him to channel Chakra through his legs without doing the damage that it does after a certain amount of time or Chakra.

This gave him something to ponder on, but then he decided to put it aside for the time being and try to make some more progress on bringing his Master theory to life.

-

"Kaa-san?" said Naruto on the fourth day.

"Yes?" asked Tsunade slightly distractedly as she poured over a gigantic tome on medicinal Chakra techniques and theories that Naruto had lent her from the Kazame library.

"Could you teach me how to use your super-strength technique?"

Now this made her look up. She had offered several times, but he had declined each time, saying that he would get stronger the 'proper' way and beat her in a test of strength one day.

She grinned, and said: "Finally realised that you're going to need my help to be able to beat me?"

"Nah, I realised that if I ever want to get Kesh to shut up about my hair it would be to punch him through a wall."

A vein throbbed up against her forehead, making Naruto laugh.

"Just kidding, just kidding, Actually, I want to learn because I've realised that you can never have enough advantages in battle, and I could already hit someone through a wall if I dropped the weights, or got really pissed off at someone, but being annoyed, dropping weights and having Chakra-enhanced super-strength would make one hell of a good combination, and it could also help with an idea I'm working on."

"You have too many ideas," she retorted, and Naruto just snorted in return.

"Probably, but this is in the good ideas section. So will you teach me?" he pleaded.

"Of course," she replied, beaming happily.

-

Kesshiro just couldn't believe his luck. Yes, he often said a few things to Tsunade teasingly which resulted in his flying through more walls than was healthy (1 wall was already bordering on unhealthy, but that one hurts a bitch when it's Tsunade who hit you) and also when she'd been heavily overprotective of Naruto and would hit him for the smallest of things, but that had been before he had become a Hunter-Nin and she'd finally let up a bit on the heavy mothering. But now, she was teaching the blond bundle of terror-inducing energy how to hit people through walls without so much as concentrating, which meant having to carry two times more back-armour, which had cost him a bloody fortune.

He sighed, and watched as Tsunade helped Naruto get to grips with exactly when to let off the Chakra blast from his fist, which of course, him being Naruto, he would think about for less than a day before coming up with a solution to his problem. They wouldn't hear anything about it for about three days before he came back with a brand new and improved version of whatever the hell they were teaching him. In the middle of those three days he had done the technique that they had shown him with Kyuubi's Chakra, which in turn would result in the levelling of a dozen trees or so before the end of the first day. Oh joys…

-

It was on the fifth day that Naruto trained by himself, trying out his new Jutsu tags. He had combined the one which created a flame, putting it on a time delay option, which was basically done by another tag that would send out a small pulse of Chakra after a set amount of time, which would, in turn, activate the next tag, about five minutes after the first one, had set off. Naruto had slightly underestimated the power of his new weapon: the three tags together in one, but it sure was bloody powerful. The first tag that set off was the one that would replicate at a high speed the **Katon: Kasumi Engo no Jutsu** (_Fire Release: Covering Mist Technique_), which formed a gas that was incredibly flammable. He decided that it would best be put to use inside a building, and it would trap the flammable gas inside, before the time-delayed fire tag lighted, and filled the place up with a sea of fire, which with the speed in which it lighted, would set off an explosion. It would also make a good weapon for an ambush, seeing as the gas was colourless and didn't smell of anything, and if he created a containment seal set, then it would be perfect. Along with it, he created the Uzumaki special smoke bomb, which with his new-found (and constantly expanding) knowledge, thanks to the ever-handy blood-clones, he had improved the weapon to the point that one smoke bomb, the same size as the regular shinobi ones, would create an impenetrable, Chakra-laced smokescreen ten times as big as the originals, and the Chakra-lacing meant that it would work against the Sharingan and Byakugan. His flash-bang was equally newly powerful, and would leave the enemies blinded and disorientated for twice as long.

He had also finally gotten to work on a long theoretical project of his, thanks to the books which he now and to explain a lot of things to him. He was currently in the creation process of an explosive which would send out a pulse of Chakra which would interfere with brain signals by turning the Chakra into electricity on impact, and if done right, could send the target to sleep instantly, or even kill them, which was unsurprisingly much easier.

He had, also thanks to his new found knowledge and mass of books filled with all sorts of things, finally made a start on turning his Master idea to life.

To summarize things greatly, he wanted to completely redesign the body's Chakra system.

-

Keep giving ideas for SHIPs, as it'll probably come up soon.

TENTEN IN THE LEAD!

Next Chapter: Jiraiya.

REVIEW OR THE EVIL KYUUBI INCARNATE WILL NIBBLE YOUR TOES OFF!


	7. Training and a Perverted Sensei

-

Chapter 7

-

CRACK!

Kesshiro sighed, looking at the umpteenth shower of splinters that came from Naruto practicing the fear-instilling monstrous strength that Tsunade had taught him to wield, as he practiced his timing against what seemed to be his hundredth tree, though in the forests of fire country, which centred around Konoha, a branch could be the thickness of the trunk of a normal tree, and one could easily set up camp on one of the centuries-old branches.

This was the day before Naruto was due back to team training, and the blonde was making the best of his limited time as possible. He had his blood clones deciphering ancient scrolls passed down from before Konoha had been created, and there was only two hidden villages, though the Village of Shadows wasn't known back then, and so they thought that the Hidden Village of Light was the only village. Whilst they did that, another set of Blood Clones were inspecting the village, making a large map by sending their knowledge back to another team of Blood Clones based at the Kazame Compound, who drew it all out, including hiding places and they even went as far as sneaking into shops to map out the interiors to get a fully inclusive bird's x-ray eye view of the village so that he could easily see which buildings could be used for contact points, and he was using a new seal of his for mapping upper floors, so that he could move up floors in different buildings easily, even on the 2D map, and the clones had even found decade-old trapdoors, untouched for years that lead to a network of passages below the village that lead to the safety caves in the mountains where civilians were to go in the event of an attack. He had them plot advantage points and weaknesses in the village's defence to strengthen as well. Another team watched the Chuunin Guard patrols around the village and had worked out the shift times and patrol cycles, including which guards went when. Well, he hadn't gotten very far yet, seeing as how he had only started the previous evening, but he was making a good start on it.

Another team was working on finding things out about each clan, including their past and their Bloodline's weaknesses and secrets, so that he could generate a plan against a member of any clan in moments. Another team learned all about Shogi, so that he could surprise Shikamaru by beating the lazy git. Another team was learning a new Kenjutsu style, each clone learning one of the Katas each, as Naruto wanted to learn as many techniques as possible so that he could mix the styles together and create his own styles that incorporated all of them, making it highly unpredictable, and unpredictable opponents were the ones who fell even the strongest of Shinobi just because they were virtually unblockable, and one had to be used to changing styles very rapidly to be able to counter an opponent who did exactly the same thing. He'd also had a spar with Lee that morning, and was amazed at the speed that the green-clad Genin improved. Gai was obviously crazy (for reasons other than the dozens already given) and had advanced Lee's training to upgrade his weights sooner than healthy, but Lee managed it well, and had started learning a variation of the Iron Fist style, which was called the Hammer Drop, and used the legs more, but a mix of the two along with Lee's new gloves which had painfully large blocks of metal over each knuckle to cause devastating effect, and his leg weights hurt like hell when they came into contact which bare skin, and all he needed now was a few blades and he'd be instantly lethal, rather than bludgeoningly lethal. Despite its totally idiotic look, the leotard-like suit he wore allowed great mobility, and its WTF?-Factor gave him the advantage of confusion (or hilarity) which distracted the enemies. Neither of the two mismatched friends ever dropped their weights when fighting each other, as the both of them had been expressively taught to never drop their weights unless absolutely necessary.

Thanks to Naruto's new strength, which came from his constant training, permitted by a seal he had made that would make him constantly release Chakra to help his limbs, his strength grew quicker than before, and his Chakra got constant practise, and he would gain what he lost two times over after resting, and his control continuously got better too. This would be suicidal for most people, as they would get sucked dry of Chakra far too quickly and would die, but Naruto had too much Chakra, and this helped loads with controlling his mega-punches, he had maxed out his second set of Chakra weights, now bringing up the total to ludicrous amounts, and they had been forced to use an alternative, due to the fact that Naruto simply didn't have enough space on his arms and legs for another set, but luckily, his Father had already invented a way of doing it, and he was getting used to the first level of the gravity seal, which increased the gravity pull on his body twofold, which had literally floored him at first, but the Chakra-release tag let his limbs work fine, and he had added the tag to the gravity tag which would make it continuously upgrade itself to the level where he would struggle with it, making it a gradual rise rather than jumps, which could disrupt his training.

He had also found a way of channelling Chakra through his No-Dachi, making it much sharper, and he had just moved on from demolishing trees with his fists to creating firewood with practicing Iadiojutsu (attacking in the same move as drawing your sword) and he was also making a strategy where he had to practise suddenly making his sword longer, which would surprise his enemy, and could be lethal if done correctly. Adding to the already growing team of Blood Clones, he had gotten another team to research on a weapon that had been mentioned in his Father's notes, which he had scanned completely into his red journal, whilst keeping the original notes in a safe that would stand the brunt of all of his explosives put together.

The next, and to his mind, more important team, was continuing research on his Master theory. His main problem was that he could create the Chakra system; he just had to finish designing it, but to install the new system, he would either have to destroy the Chakra system completely before building the new one, but that would easily be lethal, and there was probably be about a 2 chance that they would survive the first step, let along the reconstruction. The second method was to alter the Chakra system already there, but that would require a hell of a lot of Chakra, which wasn't too bad, probably a Hyuuga since he didn't have a way of seeing the Chakra system, but he didn't want any of those poncy gits taking credit for his work, or being any way related to it. Because of it, another team was going over Medical texts to see if there was anything about Chakra pathway reconstruction, as his third, and eventual option was to reconstruct it a bit at a time. Because the Chakra coils were attached to the main organs, destroying them would kill the main organs too, so it would be a highly risky operation, and not one that he was keen on starting anytime son, before he had raised its chance of success to as high as possible, optimally above 80, as Kyuubi's regenerative powers would help a hell of a lot towards making the final 20 that humans wouldn't be able to get.

Knowledge was something that the Blood Clones could get, but the original himself was the only one who could increase his physical state, and even Blood Clones experimenting with Jutsus could send him the information on exactly how to do it, and he would receive the memories of doing it as if they were his own, to the point that only logical thinking and Kyuubi's help could tell him which memories were originally his rather than a clone's, but he had them send all of the information whilst he was asleep, when he was in a meditative state of sleep, and he would organize the information rather than get the headache of a lifetime and kill himself on an overdose of aspirin.

I need to learn to use more full stops.

-

"Welcome back to team training, and I hope that you had a productive week," sad Kurenai, narrowing her eyes at Shikamaru, who returned it with a look of angelic innocence. "We'll be recommencing with a teamwork exercise, incorporating what we learned over the past week. There are four Chuunin Guard surrounding a scroll somewhere within these woods. Your job is very simply to find them, get past the guards, and get the scroll, which will tell you what to do. These Chuunins have no idea why they are guarding it, and so they won't go easy on you, as they were given the guarding mission as a high C-Rank mission, given what you lot are able to do. Try not to damage them too much," she said, this time looking at Naruto, who sported the same angelic innocent look as Shikamaru, except that a mental chibi-Naruto dancing around with a fiery trident whilst two horns sprouted on his forehead whilst being surrounded by explosives was projected into the minds of all of the others.

She made sure that they all understood their instructions, and dismissed them to get on with the task. The first thing they all did was to gather up a tree which was free of any traps, and they discussed what they had learned over the week. Shino had reached the second level of his clan's bugs, progressing from the Kekkei bugs that Aburames got at birth to the Kikaichu bugs that marked an Aburame as having reached adulthood, and Shino was one of the three youngest in Aburame history to achieve a contract with the destruction bugs, which sucked up Chakra much faster than the normal Kekkei bugs. Inoka had learned how to use Wakazashis, which were her family's speciality, and Nitoryu (two-sword style) as well as starting to learn medical jutsus, and had a medi-Nin kit with her, whilst Shikamaru, instead of just playing Shogi with his Father or watching clouds with his old academy fried Chouji, he had practised in enlargement his shadow and getting his Chakra levels up, as well as learning the **Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu** (_Shadow Neck Bind Technique_) and **Kage Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Shadow Cloak of Invisibility Technique_) which instead of the academy technique where one hides themselves behind a cloth which blends into the background, it wove shadows around him to hide himself in the shadows far more successfully.

Naruto and Shikamaru then put their brains together to create a strategy whilst Shino's bugs found out the location of the Chuunins guarding the scroll, which wasn't far away, and apparently all four of the Chuunin guards were feeling bored. The four of them went in different directions and were soon surrounding the four Chuunin guards, and were conversing via the radio headsets which Naruto had set so that no sound could escape an invisible and unobtrusive Chakra bubble around the four Genin's heads. Naruto was perched up in his tree, preparing himself. He had found out that with a complex transformation seal that rearranged materials in an object, his crossbow could become a longbow, which was easier to use for this kind of situation, and another seal made it so that his Chakra created an arrow when he pulled back the string, though his crossbow was more for power and sniping, whilst the bow was for accuracy and speed, and was more manoeuvrable, though was still far more hi-tech than a normal bow, and was also collapsible for easier transportation. But at the moment, it was fully opened, and it was loaded with an arrow that was made of Chakra which he had created with the intent of a tranquilizer, and as the Chakra was his, it would do what he wanted it to do.

"_Naruto, in position," _he said into his headset, and got confirmation from the others that they were in position. Inoka had already trapped one of them with her **Shintenshin no Jutsu**, and Kikaichu bugs were trickling around the four bored guards. Shikamaru, who was the most capable in Genjutsus of the whole group, was hidden very close to the group with his new shadow cloak technique, and his shadow was ready to snare the guards. Naruto's bow was poised and ready with a clear shot, though he had just stuck to using a Henge to change his appearance to be completely green as camouflage.

Unlike most best laid plans, this one did actually go alright, and Inoka let the Kikaichu bugs suck the Chakra out of her victim, whilst she retreated, leaving her body vulnerable, but she was covered by a Naruto clone, though it was unnecessary. The Kikaichu bugs settled around the Genjutsu that was hiding the scroll, whilst Shikamaru actually lifted one up into the air using the **Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu** on the man's ankle, and a tranquilizing Chakra arrow hit the only female Chuunin in the back, the foreign Chakra with sleep-inducing properties being shot into her system. She fell over on top of the only remaining Chuunin, who was knocked out by Shino simply hitting him in the head with the ring of a kunai. The four Genin bound and gagged a Chuunin each, infusing the ropes with Chakra like they had been taught, which meant that they couldn't get out with the **Nawanuke no Jutsu** (_Rope Escape Technique_) which practically all Academy Graduates knew, before they went towards the scroll, though carefully checked for traps. Five minutes, three close dodges from Katon jutsus, two spiky traps with kunai and shuriken respectively, they had the scroll in hand, and they opened it up.

A huge burst of smoke exploded from the scroll, and the four jumped backwards, clear of the smoke, and had to quickly dodge a kunai sent at each of them, before dodging or blocking a limb being thrown at them, attached to a completely covered body. Only Shikamaru's over-sized genius brain and Naruto's photographic memory managed to notice that their attackers had Kumo hatai-ate, and each of them was wielding a razor-sharp katana, judging how it just went straight through a sapling like it was nothing. Inoka instantly had her Wakazashis out and flashed in the light that penetrated the dense canopy, whilst Naruto's shortened Chakra-hardened and Chakra-sharpened No-Dachi slashed straight through his opponent's sword in one Iadio swipe, leaving the fake Kumo Nin, which was obvious since Kumo Nin don't just spring out of scrolls, and the katanas they wielded were standard ANBU ones. But Naruto had reason to worry, because his opponent unsheathed another sword that he easily recognized as Hayate's, meaning that he was going against the ANBU Head, who was Konoha's best swordsman. He blocked the flash of a strike with his own sword, and thanked his lucky kunai (though he didn't have one) that his sword was of high-quality steel, as else, Hayate's equally high quality sword would have made shrapnel of his sword. Hayate unfortunately also knew many more sword styles than he did, which came from years of experience, and Hayate also held the record for longest time spent as an ANBU captain, when the usual was maximum of five years, he'd held the position for over ten, and the ANBU Head position for four. Naruto also had the (mis)fortune of being acquainted with the **Mikazuki no Mai** (_Dance of the Crescent Moon_) and he saw three Hayates all heading straight for him with their swords aiming for his heart, having chosen this technique because it had been recorded that Genjutsu was Naruto's weak point.

"I know my weaknesses better than anyone else…" muttered Naruto, grinning slightly. In the air was when a shinobi was most vulnerable, as they couldn't dodge very well at all, and since he was terrible at casting Genjutsus, he had made sure that he was highly proficient at seeing through them, and Kyuubi helped too. To the ANBU Head's shock, Naruto took no notice whatsoever of the three decoys, span on his heel in a flash and decked him straight in the face whilst he had snuck up behind him with a Chakra-enhanced punch, and the old tree shuddered as a body hit it. Naruto then span back around, holding his sword horizontally and slashed through all three Kage Bunshins that had been covered in a Genjutsu to distract and slightly hypnotize him, making them puff into smoke. He moved out of the way of a kunai coming from behind him. 'Dodging' as in moving out of the way of it hitting him in the lung and instead hit him in his right arm. But he didn't let this faze him, and he gathered up the blood from his wound before it closed and flicked it towards Hayate's face. The swordsman shielded his eyes with his arm, which wasn't hit with blood like he had thought would happen, but with the heel of a solid steel-plated boot, breaking several bones in his spare hand and sent him backwards.

Wincing at his broken hand, he looked up at Naruto, or more precisely, Narutos. Trying to discern which was the real one, he tried to find his katana, but saw it lodged in the underside of a branch twenty feet above him, and two of the Narutos engaged him in a Tantojutsu fight, whilst the third one hung back, performing a number of seals at a blur which the experienced ANBU captain recognized and added Chakra to his legs to jump straight upwards, hiding behind the same branch that he had just recollected his sword from whilst hundreds of Senbon, thanks to Naruto's **Senbon Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**, peppered the area below him. Hayate examined his surroundings, and quickly jumped away as the explosive tags set by the fourth Naruto that he hadn't seen the first time around exploded.

"Hayate-sama, you of all people should know not to impersonate someone else right before using your own trademark skill, as well as using standard ANBU swords," remarked Naruto calmly.

"Yeah, well we didn't have very long to get ready, as we had expected you to take a _little_ bit longer with the Chuunins. Must remember to get better ones next time," replied Hayate, saying the last part to himself. "This was more of a test to see what you were all capable of," he added, dropping down to the forest floor where he examined the three other ANBUs, and made a mental note that next time he wouldn't choose the unpredictable and highly dangerous blonde Uzumaki next time, and the idea was reinforced by a shot of pain that went through his broken hand. One of the others was rolling around on the ground, trying to get off the remaining Kikaichu bugs still stuck to him, whilst the female ANBU was helping in healing Inoka's injuries from their battle with Chakra scalpels, both being medi-Nins, as Tsunade's idea of having a four man cell with one as a medi-Nin had been accepted a while back in ANBU, discreetly from the Konoha Council who didn't know shit about anything. The final ANBU who had fought Shikamaru was playing the shadow-user in a violent game of Shogi, though was sadly getting his arse kicked by the child genius, and Hayate sighed. "Rikyu-san, we were supposed to engage them in combat, not play old man games," he said, and the two players turned to him with death glares.

"It is **NOT** an old man game!" they both ground out between gritted teeth, and Hayate took an involuntary step back away from the two.

"Ok…"

Whilst the two continued their game, and several rematches on the bird-masked ANBU Nin named Rikyu's insistence, Hayate and Naruto were having a Kenjutsu-only spar, and Hayate was helping Naruto with the new style he was learning, and even started showing him a new style, which Naruto sent a mental message to his Blood Clones to find out more about, and the two continued sparring afterwards with Hayate correcting Naruto's flaws, which were gradually becoming fewer. Inoka was being taught how to repair muscle damage like what the Chakra Mizu dealt, and Shino was having a staring competition with his ANBU, which he won hands down, just coz he's Shino.

Two hours later, Hayate addressed all of them, saying: "I've scheduled a general ANBU training session for tonight, starting at eleven and finishing at four in the morning, and we'll be simulating tactical parts of a shinobi invasion, the first half hour will be a briefing, and the two hours after will be a defensive situation, and then the half-hour afterwards will be your second briefing, followed by two hours of an offensive invasion, so be prepared. Since you've never been to one of these before, go to the east side of the Hokage Monument and wait for me there at seven this evening, and you'll get probably a bit over an hour to prepare yourself for eleven o'clock. Tomorrow you will have a free morning off to recover."

They all nodded their understanding, and went in their separate directions, having gotten the afternoon off for good work, and Inoka dragged them off to the bath houses to unwind after their fighting (or playing a strenuously tiring game of Shogi) and to their surprise, she got them all a mixed bath. When Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this, she (after punching him for daring to think such thoughts) said that the bathing houses in this area required all minors to wear bathing costumes, and they soon also found out that Shino never took off his glasses, and had to wear plugs to stop the Kikaichu bugs from being flooded with the steaming hot water.

When the four of them were relaxing in the hot water, Naruto's Kyuubi-enhanced hearing picked up a distant high-pitched sound, which sounded a lot like…, giggling? Frowning, he gently lifted himself out of the pool and walked on the rough stone until he reached the corner of the fence, and put his ear against it, allowing his ears to get vibrations much easier, and he enhanced it further with Chakra, to find the general location of it, which soon proved to be unnecessary when he heard a sudden shout of: "How dare you sir! So ungentlemanly an activity that you are taking a part of!" came from a closet-pervert that Naruto remembered as the special Jounin Ebisu, before a -poof- was heard and a -smack- followed it. Naruto lifted himself over the fence, to see the most ludicrously orange toad sitting there, a number of feet high, and on top of it stood a man who could only be described as 'bizarre'. Long needle-like white hair went down his back, where a large scroll was housed, on top of strange red garb, and face paint it seemed. From what it looked like, the smack had been the toad's tongue, and an unconscious Ebisu now lay on the ground with a large bump on his head.

It also didn't take long to find out what Ebisu had been lecturing about, as the man turned back to face a gate, giggling every so often and scribbling down on a notebook. Naruto frowned, and walked over silently, though had he been dressed as a one-man band the pervert still wouldn't have realised, being too engrossed in his activities to pay attention to his surroundings.

"If you're going to be peeking on bathing women then at least do it with the grace and stealth befitting of a legendary Sannin, Jiraiya-san," said Naruto, recognizing the man instantly from his Father's description of the man, and so far he wasn't too impressed.

"Don't lecture me on how to be a ninja, kid, I quit the profession ages ago," said Jiraiya gravely.

"Then why do you still carry the Toad summon contract?"

"Because I haven't found anybody else worthy of carrying it yet."

"And I guess that the forty-two kunai you have on you are for decoration purposes?"

This got his attention, and he spun around, falling off the toad and crashing into the ground in one swift move.

"What did you say your name was, kid?" asked Jiraiya when he stood back up and straightened himself, looking none the worse for wear. "And how the hell did you know mine?"

"I didn't, and it was pretty hard to miss the description of 'looks like an idiot, giggles like an idiot and is an idiot'."

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes. "So who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"Uzumaki? Wait a minute… Only Uzumaki was Kinuyo… If she was married to…" comprehension dawned on him, and he stared up at a patiently waiting Naruto, and the Toad Sannin did the only thing one could do when finding your ex-student's missing, presumed dead son after twelve years. He fainted.

-

When Jiraiya came to, he jumped up and looked around, and relaxed when he saw Naruto sitting on a large rock in what definitely looked like a forest, sharpening his weapons with Chakra, which was a rarely used Chakra exercise.

"You're really…" he started.

"The son of the Yondaime, yeah."

"Who knows?"

"Hokage-Jiiji, Kaa-san, Nii-san, Nii-chan, Kyuu-chan," he said, petting the little fox cub on his shoulder, which glared at him for the name, but was instantly distracted when it saw a rabbit, and pounced from Naruto's shoulder, coming back to the silent humans a few moments later dragging a dead rabbit easily three times its own size, and Jiraiya watched in morbid fascination at the matriculate job that the kit did of taking the rabbit to pieces.

"The population of Konoha doesn't know about it," said Naruto, sensing that that was the question on Jiraiya's mind, when he managed to look away from the kit who was organizing his food in piles of meat, organs, fur and bones. "And I've got a feeling that Shikamaru suspects something. Too smart for his own good..."

"Do you know about… you know?"

"I assume that you are talking about Kyuu-chan?"

"Kyuu-chan?"

"The physical reincarnation of the Kyuubi's soul put into a container which was slightly more suitable for power restriction," said Naruto, gesturing towards Kit, who was now happily licking up the blood before it dried up or soaked into the ground. "It was a part of a deal I struck with the big fur-ball. I get to use his clan as an Animal Summon, and I allow him to use his senses again. Despite his size, he can still kill a full sized adult deer and eat it in one sitting."

"That's Kyuubi?" asked Jiraiya, peering at the tiny fox curiously, and slightly disbelievingly.

"That's the biggest container he could create for himself with the Chakra he was able to summon before the seal stops him, and even then I had to help him a bit, though he would never personally admit it. I understand that you were my Father's sensei?" he asked, changing the topic.

Jiraiya nodded, smiling at fond memories that were brought to his mind. "He said the same thing to me about peeping, you know. Sarutobi-sensei would just ask why I didn't invite him…"

"Perverted old geezer…"

Jiraiya laughed. "Yeah, but not as much as me!"

"What, the perverted part or the old part?"

"Perverted part, obviously, for I am the SUPER PERVERT JIRAIYA!"

"Geez, keep your voice down. Being perverted isn't the greatest thing to be proud about."

"It is for the author of the bestselling across all five nations, Icha Icha Paradise!"

"You wrote that filth?"

"Yep!" replied Jiraiya, beaming happily with his eyes closed. Bad idea.

BAM!

Jiraiya picked himself up from where he had flown through three trees, and looked around dazed.

"Damn, this reminds me of… Oh shit…" he murmured, and saw Naruto walking towards him. "You wouldn't know Tsunade-baba by any chance?" he asked on a horrible whim.

Naruto grinned. "Kaa-san taught me well."

"Bugger."

-

"So what you basically have to do," said Jiraiya an hour later, sporting a massive lump on his head, the size of the water balloon he was holding up, "is to pop it just by using your Chakra. This is for concentration."

Naruto nodded, and picked up a water balloon from the bag he had purchased on Jiraiya's order. Jiraiya had offered to teach him how to do the Rasengan, one of his Father's signature skills, but he very soon learned that Jiraiya's version of 'teaching' was rather skewed, and in reality meant 'show and then sod off somewhere'. In return, Jiraiya soon learned that all Kazames were pushy blondes who had a knack for death glares towards perverted senseis, something that Kakashi had also learned a while ago, though one of those pushy blondes had been his sensei instead of student, whilst the other was a half-student-ish.

It was an hour later that Naruto was still swirling the water inside the balloon trying to get it to pop, and Jiraiya had managed to escape a while ago to Kami knows where, leaving him there alone, trying to get the damned ball to pop.

He unfortunately had to stop because he had to meet Hayate with his team by the Hokage Monument, and he sped off, picking up Shino from the Aburame compound in the forest, followed by the Nara manor, which was quite big in comparison to the houses of the other lesser clans, and followed then by the Yamanaka flower shop, where they found Inoka arguing with her only sibling, who was shouting very loudly her love for the lone Uchiha, whilst Inoka was shouting that the Uchiha was just a sulking prat. The argument was cut short by the three boys' arrival, and Team 4 all went together to the meeting point, and when they arrived they saw Hayate just arriving, and he silently motioned them to follow discreetly using hand-signs. This meant that he was making sure that nobody was tailing them, and quite rightly so, they thought, when they found out where he was leading them.

Deep inside the mountain housing the Hokage monument, a long way below the civilian shelters, they arrived in a large white room which showed no sign of being underground apart from the lack of windows, and masked people were dotted around the room, and many white corridors span off from the room to head to many highly-protected rooms deep underground.

"Welcome to ANBU Headquarters."

-

This Chapter was originally going to be longer, but I decided to stop at the 5000 word mark, to save my own brains from exploding, as by the time I'd read through it (and noticed a good deal less mistakes than when I looked through my previous chapter, though maybe I just wasn't awake enough to catch them) it was nearly 2am.

Since not everyone seems to know what they are, SHIPs (no idea what it stands for) are romantic pairings in a story, and so far, it's a clear Naru-Ten.

I've tried planning this story out to see in which direction I'll be taking it, but so far I'm only half-way through what my original Chapter 7 was going to be, and the main happenings of Chapter 8 were going to be in this chapter, though dumbed down a lot.

PLEASE REVIEW!

It doesn't cost you anything but ten seconds to review. You don't have to say anything constructive, most of the reviews I leave for other fics are just 'great new chapter, update soon' sort of thing. If you like the fic let me know, and reviews really do make updates come quicker (not joking).

Kyuubi incarnates are still available for toe-mauling, so prepare to run like hell if you don't leave a review.

SO PRESS THE BUTTON JUST BELOW THIS LINE **NOW**.


	8. Author's Note

**-NOTE: This chapter will be replaced with the real chapter whenever the hell that happens.-**

Sadly, I'm going to have to say that it's going to be a while before I can update, so this fic is hereby of indefinite hiatus, as much as it pains me to do so.

Because of a few reviews, I have decided to say a few things.

Pairings are non-Yaoi, because as a straight guy, it just freaks me out to see Sasu-Naru stories. It's just wrong (not homo-phobia, just don't like seeing characters at each other's throats one moment and snogging each other's brains out in the next)

Sakura, Ino and Hinata are out, because their perosonalities don't mesh well with Naruto;s new one. Sakura is just a bitch in my opinion, Ino whines far too much, like Sakura, and fawns over a living ice-cube, whilst Hinata didn't have Naruto's sunny personality as she grew up, so she doesn't idolize him.

It has come to my attention that I probably have gone a bit too far with Naruto's training, but for somebody who's trained since he was three, and had a Sannin for a mother, not to mention a successful Hunter-nin/Jinchuuriki as a mentor and role-model, he's going to be far more powerful than people who start training at six (I think, might be five, but I think that was just Itachi and possibly Kakashi) and who spend those six years flower arranging and learning history, not to mention that he learns from Kyuubi when asleep too, and he's bound to pick up some skills along the way. But I'll try to dumb it down a tad. Blame my imagination, it all comes from many different ideas colliding and deciding to all come along together.

Now, for a direct review response.

To a pathetically anonymous reviewer, who either doesn't want to be known or is too lazy to get an account, but has called themselves '**Knives**':

My apologies for any mistake I may have inadvertently caused, and I apologise in the way that may not hurt your inflated head. At least I actually bothered to try, you dumb piece of shit. I quote: "This fic, like most others like it, is too much." See the problem with this? If not then you are stupider than I believed, dipshit. Everything is like everything like it, stupid. As for D-Rank Nukenins, yes, they exist. A lot of things in Naruto have ranks, from E to S, perhaps even to SS though that might just be something someone made up and everybody went along with it, and Nukenins aren't any different, only those who are B-Rank and above get into the Bingo books. As for Wave, I am very well aware that they don't have a Hidden Village, it says it very clearly in the anime, very near the beginning which I have watched several times, and read the Manga, but I believe (pardon me again if I'm wrong, I read many fanfics which inspire me and make me confused sometimes between canon and fanon) that they do have a militia force, whoever small it may be, and they can still use weapons. After that we come across: "It's not very realistic otherwise." Ok, you're flaming me about unrealism? The main idea behind the Anime is that they use a mix of physical and mental energy which allows them to run up walls, breathe fireballs, create near-unbreakable ice mirrors, make themselves look like other people, BRING PEOPLE BACK FROM THE DEAD, and make trees grow at a very fast rate, without mentioning (and this is an oxymoron, as I am mentioning it) having massive nine-tailed foxes roaming the lands and being defeated by one, albeit powerful, HUMAN, and once again not mentioning having six arms, generating calcium to grow bones out of nothing, and have eyes which can do everything, it seems. See my point? You can't criticize my unrealism without donning the entire Anime, so piss off and write your own bloody story if you don't like mine, and what's the bloody point in flaming it if you then go on to say that you are actually going to read the rest, and by the way, reviewing for chapter 2 when seven chapters are out, it absolutely fucking stupid, you moron, and then I get another review for Chapter 3 saying only "Hmm.. Good chapter I guess.." **MAKE YOUR FUCKING MIND UP!!!**

Luckily for everybody's sake, I already replied personally to naruto611's overly picky review.

Damn it feels good to rant.


	9. Abandonement

Sorry people, but no updates now, or likely ever. From now, I'm officially abandoning this story, having unofficially done so months ago, due to lack of inspiration for this. Other stories may make an appearance, but this one has run dry for me.

If anybody wishes to adopt this story, either in full, or just taking some ideas, please let me know, I'd like to read what you come up with.

Thankyou to all those who reviewed, and thanks for reading anyways to those who didn't. All in all, I probably got the lowest amount of flames or harsh reviews of any story, at an all time low of 1 (as far as my memory serves - see the previous AN for details). Everybody (minus 1) has been very supportive, but it just won't be continuing.

Sorry.

As I said, feel free to take anything, as long as I get a link to the story. 


End file.
